A federal judge has sentenced a Pine Ridge Reservation woman to 8 years in prison for providing the fentanyl that caused the overdose death of a Porcupine boy.
24-year-old Tarriah Provost had pleaded guilty to conspiracy with intent to distribute a controlled substance as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Four people who accepted the same deal are still awaiting sentencing.
16-year-old Louis Sandoval died of an overdose on Dec. 2, 2020. An autopsy found fentanyl in his system, which Provost admitted to giving him.
Provost told the judge that Sandoval was like a little brother to her and she wouldn’t have given him the drug if she thought it would kill him.