Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

Bethalto woman gets 10 years for giving drugs to Lakin informant who died

EAST ST. LOUIS -- A Bethalto woman and federal prosecutors reached an agreement Wednesday calling for her to serve 10 years in prison for providing drugs to a man who died of an overdose more than year after he had given the FBI information about former Madison County lawyer L. Thomas Lakin.

Amanda Overstreet has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with the death of Jared Hawkins, who died from an overdose of methadone in 2004. Methadone is commonly used to treat cocaine addiction.

In early 2003, Hawkins told the FBI that teenagers were attending parties featuring cocaine and sex at Lakin's home. Hawkins, 21, also told the FBI that Lakin once invited him into a bedroom to watch an adult couple have sex.

Chief Judge David Herndon said he will not formally accept Overstreet's plea to the charge of distributing methadone resulting in a death until after he sees a pre-sentence investigation.

Herndon said Overstreet therefore has not officially been convicted yet and can remain free on bond in part because of the medical care she needs for injuries she received after she was hit by a car. Overstreet, who walked gingerly into court with a squeaky leg brace, was hit by a car in August 2008 as she was walking on Madison Avenue in Wood River.

"Technically, there isn't a plea in the case, and Miss Overstreet continues to have extraordinary medical needs," Herndon said.

Lakin in October 2008 received a six-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to supplying cocaine to minors.

In exchange for Lakin's guilty plea, federal prosecutors dropped sex charges against him that carried a possible life sentence. Prosecutors had accused Lakin of using cocaine to entice two women into having sex with a boy while Lakin watched, and taking the boy across state lines with intent to have sex with him.

A state prosecutor said recently that sex charges involving Lakin remain under investigation on the state level.

Without the plea agreement, Overstreet, 25, faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Federal prosecutors will ask Herndon to give Overstreet the reduced, 10-year sentence in part because she has cooperated with the government in other investigations. The nature of her cooperation was not discussed in court, nor is it outlined in the written plea agreement.

The agreement states that if Overstreet doesn't get the 10-year sentence, she can withdraw her guilty plea.

Overstreet's attorneys, public defenders Phil Kavanaugh and Stephen Williams, declined comment after the plea hearing. Two family members of Hawkins attended the hearing but declined comment afterward.