The entrance to the South Dakota State Penitentiary’s East Hall. (Courtesy of South Dakota Department of Corrections)

SIOUX FALLS — Unless he misbehaves in the next year and a half, a state prison inmate won’t serve any additional time in a case that accused him of providing the drugs that killed a fellow inmate.

The outcome came two months after a court hearing where prosecutors apologized for a failure by the state Department of Corrections to preserve some evidence.

Manarion Fuse, 22, is one of two people charged with drug crimes in the death of Anthony Richards, whose February 2025 death was ruled an overdose.

Eight people died of confirmed or suspected overdoses in South Dakota prisons last year, starting with Richards, a prison overdose tally that was both higher than any surrounding state and higher than South Dakota has seen in modern memory. 

As with all but one of the eight cases, Richards’ death was linked to a synthetic drug called K2.

Prison officials and Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office have pledged to address the crush of drug incidents through security policy changes and prosecutions.

Fuse is the first person to enter a plea for a crime linked to one of the 2025 overdoses.

In a statement Tuesday, Jackley said the sentence for Fuse may not have been ideal, but it does offer some closure in the Richards case.

“Even though there was some evidence not available that likely impacted the sentence — through no fault of investigators or prosecutors — there was both a criminal conviction and sentence.”

No contest, no additional time

In court Tuesday, Fuse pleaded no contest to a charge of felony drug possession in exchange for the dismissal of the remaining charges against him and a sentence that won’t change his initial parole date, which comes next May. People pleading no contest do not admit guilt, but it allows a judge to impose a sentence as though they had.

Such a plea also sidesteps the legal requirement for a judge to read a factual basis statement into the record that includes the date, time and manner in which the pleading party committed a crime.

Fuse had argued that other inmates and staff members may have been involved in distributing the drugs that reportedly killed Richards at the state penitentiary’s Jameson Annex. 

State apologizes, but can’t explain missing evidence in prison overdose case

At a hearing in November, Assistant Attorney General Ryan McFall apologized for the state’s failure to produce some of the evidence Fuse’s lawyer Kylie Beck had requested to prepare his defense.

The prosecution had turned over all the evidence delivered to prosecutors by the Department of Corrections, McFall said, but said videos of alleged drug deliveries to Fuse had not been preserved.

Beck, of the Minnehaha County Public Defender’s Office, said Tuesday that her client agreed to the plea deal to avoid a trial, at which he’d run the risk of convictions for more than one offense and face sentencing as a habitual offender.

“Mr. Fuse is not admitting any sort of guilt, but understands that this will appear as a conviction on his record,” Beck said.

McFall offered no comments aside from encouraging Judge Jon Sogn to follow the terms of the plea agreement, which capped Fuse’s sentence at three years, with two suspended, to run concurrent with Fuse’s 2024 sentence for discharging a firearm at an occupied structure.

Sogn added two years of suspended time, which could be imposed if Fuse fails to pay a $65 fee or misbehaves while on probation.

Fuse’s co-defendant, Malibu Lynn Ross, is scheduled for a change of plea and sentence hearing on March 4.

First sentence in spate of overdose deaths

Jackley’s office indicted Fuse in June, the first of what became several rounds of overdose-related prison drug indictments. More people were charged in September for the death of Nicholas Skorka, and still more were charged in December in the death of Travis Long Fox.

On Monday, Jackley announced charges for 11 people allegedly involved in the drug distribution ring linked to the November death of Timothy Tyree at Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield.

Three of the people indicted thus far formerly worked at a prison, one as a correctional officer in Sioux Falls, another as a medical aid in Sioux Falls and a third as a contract food service worker in Springfield.

Investigations into the remaining drug deaths are ongoing, Jackley said Monday.

Prairie Crowe, Richards’ sister, told South Dakota Searchlight on Tuesday that her family had been informed of the terms of the Fuse plea deal. 

The family is disappointed by the outcome, but Crowe said she puts the blame on the Department of Corrections, not prosecutors. The department needs to “step up” its efforts to protect the inmates in its care, she said, react more quickly when inmates are in trouble and do a better job investigating when things go wrong. 

“They’re responsible for making sure people get home, and they’re not doing it,” Crowe said. 

In a statement Tuesday, corrections spokesman Michael Winder said the department “cannot comment on ongoing investigations, criminal cases, lawsuits, or security sensitive matters.”