A Brady Township man was sentenced to prison, but immediately paroled, for his role in providing a lethal dose of fentanyl-laced heroin to a 33-year-old man who died of an overdose in 2015.

Justin O. Newman, 31, has been in Butler County Prison for 815 days since his 2017 arrest when police charged him in the death of a Donegal Township man.

His charges included drug delivery resulting in death. However, on Jan. 6, he pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and the other charges were dropped.

Newman was sentenced Thursday by county Judge William Shaffer to 812 days to five years in prison. He was released with time already served. Newman must pay a $750 fine as part of his sentence.

Newman made no comment during sentencing.

As part of his plea deal, he is not to speak with his co-defendant, Julia L. Zaludek, 28, of Fenelton.

Zaludek was Newman's girlfriend at the time and she was sentenced April 5, 2017, to three to six months in jail followed by 54 months probation for misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter.

The deceased — Joshua Lee Stitt — traveled with Newman and Zaludek on Sept. 16, 2015, to buy the drugs at the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in Pittsburgh's Homestead section. There, Newman bought the drugs from a dealer and split it with Stitt, police said.

After the drug deal, family members said Stitt's 5-year-old son found his father unresponsive in the bedroom of his home on Trimbur Road.

Stitt died in an ambulance on the way to Butler Memorial Hospital.

Toxicology reports from an autopsy later showed the heroin, unbeknownst to Stitt, was mixed with fentanyl, authorities said. The synthetic painkiller is known to heighten the dangers and potency of street drugs.

The pathologist ruled Stitt “died as a result of combined fentanyl and heroin toxicity.”

The dealer, William C. Thomas III, 34, formerly of Homestead, was also charged in connection with Stitt's death. He pleaded guilty Oct. 29 to felony possession of heroin with intent to deliver and a misdemeanor charge of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced Dec. 12, to 57 to 113 months in prison followed by two years of probation.