Stewartville man sentenced to 4 years in prison for role in overdose death

Mark Wasson, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Updated ·2 min read

Apr. 5—RED WING, Minn. — A 26-year-old Stewartville man was sentenced to 48 months in prison in a Goodhue County District courtroom Wednesday April 5, 2023, for his role in the death of a Roseville man who overdosed on counterfeit pills containing fentanyl in December 2021.

Brandon James Mann, along with his partner, Nicole Jeanne Thorson, 25, of Rochester, were both initially charged with felony third-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and third-degree drug sales in June 2022.

Mann pleaded guilty to felony second-degree manslaughter as part of a January 2023 plea deal that dismissed his remaining charges and set his sentencing range between 41 and 57 months.

District Judge Douglas Bayley credited Mann with 299 days for time served.

Thorson is scheduled to appear in court April 26 and she has not submitted a plea deal to the court.

Both Mann and Thorson have been in custody in the Goodhue County Jail since Wednesday, June 16, 2022.

According to the criminal complaint:

The Roseville man, identified as B.M., bought dozens of pills he believed to be prescription opioids from Thorson and Mann in December 2021.

Eight of those pills later found in B.M.'s residence would test positive for fentanyl following a March 2022 Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension lab test.

B.M. was found deceased Dec. 11, 2021, in his Roseville apartment by members of the Roseville Fire Department. Autopsy results from the Ramsey County Medical Examiner in February 2022 listed the cause of death as "complications of fentanyl toxicity."

Investigators found multiple phone and social media messages between B.M., Mann and Thorson regarding the selling of the pills.

During a series of messages between the three, Mann would tell B.M. the pills are not fentanyl but to be careful with taking them.

"Can't imagine the guilt I'd feel if you od'd ya know," Mann wrote in one message to B.M.

Law enforcement learned that B.M. purchased 10 counterfeit pills imprinted with M30 from Thorson on Dec. 9, 2021, at a Kwik Trip in Zumbrota. M30 imprinted pills have been involved in several overdoses, according to law enforcement.

In a January 2022 statement to law enforcement, Mann said he sold B.M. Xanax and Oxycontin but that he tested them and they came back negative for fentanyl. Mann told law enforcement that he tested one out of 10 pills and that he did not know what was in all of them.

Thorson also told police she sold pills to B.M.