GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WTVB) - A federal court judge in Grand Rapids on Tuesday handed down a sentence in connection with the drug death of a Branch County teenager.
Forty-one-year-old Walter Lee Johnson of Kalamazoo was ordered to serve a 20 year prison term after pleading last fall to distributing heroin that lead to the death of 17-year-old Jesse Payne in August of 2010. Payne was found dead outside of an apartment complex in Quincy.
Johnson sold the heroin to 26-year-old Eric David Taylor of Coldwater, who has since pleaded guilty to distributing the heroin to Payne. Taylor's sentencing is scheduled for March 16th.
