Erie County's first prison sentence for an opiate-overdose death under District Attorney John Flynn was handed out Wednesday morning in county court.
Jon Herrle, 57, of the Town of Tonawanda was sentenced to one-and-a-third to four years in prison for second-degree manslaughter. He pleaded guilty in November.
Herrle was charged in connection with the death of a woman on September 25, 2016. He admitted to administering ground-up opiate pills to the intoxicated woman, telling her it was cocaine. She snorted the powder and died from the overdose.
Flynn said any fatal opiate overdose cases will be prosecuted as a homicide.