AUBURN – A local man will spend one year in prison for supplying heroin to a woman who died of an overdose.

James Mercier, 33, appeared in Androscoggin County Superior Court Thursday morning and pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful furnishing of scheduled drugs.

Police say Mercier gave his friend Karen Lindsay heroin on the night of Jan. 16. On the following day, Lindsay’s boyfriend found her unconscious and slumped over a chair in her Lewiston apartment.

Lindsay died later that day at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. A state medical examiner concluded that Lindsay suffered irreparable brain damage as a result of a drug overdose.

She was 34. According to court documents, she had a history of drug use.

Traces of morphine and codeine were found in Lindsay’s blood. But, as Deputy District Attorney Craig Turner explained in court, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that she overdosed on heroin.

Heroin breaks down quickly, and the presence of morphine is consistent with the use of an opiate drug such as heroin, Turner told Justice Thomas E. Delahanty.

After Mercier was arrested in connection with the overdose, the District Attorney’s Office forwarded the case to the Attorney General’s Office to see if it wanted to prosecute the case as a homicide.

The AG’s office declined, citing insufficient evidence.

A convicted felon who has spent more than five years in federal prison for previous drug-related crimes, Fournier told the judge that he was sorry.

“I wish it never happened,” he mumbled.

“Well,” Delahanty replied, “the only way to avoid this type of situation is to stay away from drugs.”

The charge of unlawful furnishing of scheduled drugs carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Delahanty sentenced Mercier to one year at the recommendation of the state and his lawyer.

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com