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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- An Altoona woman pleaded guilty Thursday to a pair of drug charges filed after the Nov. 17, 2019, overdose death of her boyfriend, 42-year-old Michael Jovan Bryant, in their Fairview Hills apartment.
Nicole L. Keller, 42, will be on probation for 10 years after entering pleas in Blair County Court to two felony offenses: conspiracy to possession with intent to deliver and delivery of heroin with fentanyl.
Altoona police also charged Keller with drug delivery resulting in death but that charge was withdrawn, District Attorney Pete Weeks said Thursday.
"I no longer have a factual basis to pursue drug delivery resulting in death," Weeks told Judge Jackie Bernard in court.
Weeks and defense attorney John Sisto said the evidence showed Bryant's overdose resulted from heroin that Bryant got from co-defendant Robert Patterson and not the heroin that Keller bought from Patterson at Bryant's request.
The heroin that Keller bought was accounted for, Sisto said.
In court in January, Patterson rendered no contest pleas to several drug trafficking offenses, including drug delivery resulting in Bryant's death, for a sentence of eight to 20 years' incarceration.
Patterson, at that sentencing hearing, said he felt responsible for Bryant's death because he introduced Bryant and Keller to heroin.
In court Thursday, Weeks and Sisto said Keller was considered for the county's Drug Court program, but that option was abandoned after a Blair County Drug & Alcohol Program Inc. evaluation showed her in no need of treatment.
"She's not a drug user," Sisto said.
Keller, who cried during much of the sentencing hearing, said she loved Bryant.
The mother of Bryant's son, who asked that her name not be printed, said she forgives Keller, but also asked Keller why she didn't summon help faster.
Police said Keller awakened to find Bryant unconscious on the floor and called Patterson, who arrived with two doses of naloxone.
When those doses failed to revive Bryant, Patterson performed CPR, and when that didn't work, Keller then called 911.
"Mike could have been saved if the right help was called," the mother of Bryant's son said.
"I'm sorry I didn't do more," Keller said later.
Bernard recommended that Keller write letters to Bryant's son and mother, who were not in court on Thursday, and to the mother of Bryant's son.
The judge said the letters could be part of Keller's healing process.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.