HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man has received a time-served sentence, followed by 10 years’ probation, for his role in the 2017 drug overdose death of his best friend.

Adam S. Culp, 37, who spent a year in the Blair County Prison and 21 days at an inpatient addiction treatment program, provided fentanyl-laced heroin to 29-year-old Gregory Lynam, who died of a fatal overdose on March 28, 2017, at a Juniata residence.

“Greg and Adam were two best friends, caught up in being addicts and looking for drugs together,” Culp’s mother, Rhonda Roe, told Blair County Judge Elizabeth Doyle in court on Friday.

Doyle recognized Culp’s relationship with Lynam and named it among the reasons she went below the mitigated range of the state’s guidelines to impose sentences for drug delivery resulting in death, possession with intent to deliver, criminal use of a communication device and criminal conspiracy to deliver heroin.

The judge described the men as being “in the grips of the disease of addiction” at the time of Lynam’s fatal overdose.

Doyle also recognized Culp’s remorse, his prior military service, sentences imposed on two co-defendants and no apparent opposition by Lynam’s family members, who were not in court for sentencing.

“What would you say if Greg’s family was here?” the judge asked Culp as he spoke of his late friend and ongoing efforts to turn his life around.

“I’m sorry I didn’t reach out sooner and express my remorse,” Culp said. “I thought my distance was the best option, as far as the legal aspect, the closure aspect.”

Doyle said she hoped the story of Culp and Lynam’s drug abuse and tragic consequences will be a deterrent for others.

Assistant District Attorney Katelyn Hoover asked Doyle to impose 66 months’ incarceration, which Hoover said would be a minimum mitigated range sentence. Hoover reminded Doyle that Culp had two bail revocation hearings while his charges were pending. Culp also rejected a plea offer for a drug treatment program through the state prison system, Hoover said.

Defense attorney Kristin Anastasi recommended the time-served sentence for her client who came home from military service in Iraq with an alcohol addiction that led to his opioid abuse. He now lives with his 84-year-old grandmother, cares for a 50-year-old uncle and works on construction jobs.

“He really turned his life around,” she said.

In criminal charges filed in 2017, Altoona police named Culp as the one who provided Lynam with the purple packets of heroin found beside his body.

Christopher Tremmel of Tyrone was identified as the person who sold that heroin to Culp, and Alexsi Lopez, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, was identified as the person who sold the heroin to Tremmel.

In November 2020, Doyle sentenced Tremmel to 15 years’ probation in connection with Lynam’s death and the 2018 overdose death of Joshua Blowers of Tyrone.

In September 2018, Judge Jackie Bernard sentenced Lopez to 12 to 30 years in prison in connection with Lynam’s death and related drug-trafficking offenses. While Lopez subsequently challenged his sentence, the state Superior Court recently upheld the sentence Bernard imposed.

When handing down Culp’s sentence, Doyle imposed incarceration periods totaling 12 to 24 months, minus a day, followed by 10 years’ probation. Because Culp had already spent a year in the county prison before gaining release on bail, the newly imposed sentence allows him to remain free, as long as he is compliant with additional sentencing conditions and rules set by the county probation and parole office.

The sentencing order requires him to remain in drug and alcohol treatment as long as deemed necessary and to be regularly screened for illegal and non-prescribed drug use.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.