Stephen Walter’s Role in Mac Miller’s Overdose Death

Stephen Walter is the California man who supplied the fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills that killed rapper Mac Miller, and in May 2022 a federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced him to 17.5 years in prison for distributing fentanyl. Walter, a resident of Westwood who was 46 at the time of his arrest, was the top of a three-person supply chain that ended with Miller — born Malcolm James McCormick — dead at his Studio City home on September 7, 2018, at age 26.¹

Where Walter Sat in the Supply Chain

Federal prosecutors traced the pills through three hands. Walter supplied the counterfeit oxycodone. Ryan Michael Reavis, acting at Walter’s direction, delivered them on September 4, 2018, to Cameron James Pettit. Pettit then sold them to McCormick in the early morning of September 5, along with cocaine and Xanax.²³

The pills were sold as 30-milligram oxycodone but were counterfeits laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid roughly 50 times more potent than heroin. Investigators concluded that only the pills from Pettit contained fentanyl; the other narcotics McCormick obtained from a different source did not.² The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner ruled McCormick’s death an accident caused by mixed drug toxicity involving fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol.¹

Walter told the sentencing court he believed Pettit wanted the pills for personal use and did not know Pettit intended to resell them.⁴

Dealing Continued After Miller’s Death

The dealing did not stop with the overdose. Less than a month after McCormick died, Walter agreed to sell Pettit another 10 “blues,” a street term for counterfeit oxycodone. Prosecutors said the two continued transacting throughout 2019, with deals occurring as recently as August 30, 2019.⁵ A text from Reavis quoted in the indictment showed the risks were known within the chain: “People have been dying from fake blues left and right, you better believe law enforcement is using informants and undercover to buy them on the street do they can start putting ppl in prison for life for selling fake pills.”⁶

Charges and Guilty Plea

Walter was arrested on September 23, 2019, and ordered held without bond. A federal grand jury in the Central District of California returned a three-count indictment on October 2, 2019, charging Walter, Pettit, and Reavis with conspiring to distribute controlled substances resulting in death and distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. Both charges carried a 20-year mandatory minimum and a maximum of life without parole. Walter also faced a count of being a felon in possession of ammunition, carrying up to 10 years.⁵

In November 2021, Walter signed a plea agreement to plead guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl. The plea dropped the “resulting in death” enhancement that would have triggered the 20-year mandatory minimum.³ He formally entered the plea on November 30, 2021, in a Zoom hearing before U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II.⁷

The Sentencing Hearing

The plea agreement recommended 17 years. At the May 16, 2022 sentencing hearing, Judge Wright rejected it as below federal sentencing guidelines, pointing to the evidence that Walter kept selling counterfeit pills after his supply had killed someone. “When you continue to engage in this activity even after your activities killed someone, I’m having a tough time not staying within the guidelines,” Wright said.⁸

Walter disputed the finding. “On the paperwork where it says that I continued to conduct in that kind of behavior after I knew that there was death, that’s not the truth, your honor,” he told the court, adding that he had “no idea” the pills would cause a death.⁹ He apologized to McCormick’s family: “My actions caused a lot of pain, and for that I’m truly remorseful.”¹⁰

McCormick’s mother, Karen Meyers, submitted a victim impact statement that prosecutors read aloud. “My life went dark the moment he left his world,” she wrote, adding that her son “would have never knowingly taken a pill with fentanyl” and “wanted to live and was excited about the future.”⁹

Judge Wright sentenced Walter to 210 months — 17.5 years — in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He also recommended Walter complete a 500-hour residential drug abuse program in custody and undergo outpatient treatment after release. The judge said the sentence had nothing to do with the victim’s fame: “This was a human being who unwittingly took something that will flat-out kill you, and I have no idea why we have people out here dealing in this stuff, peddling this stuff.”⁸

The Two Co-Defendants

Ryan Michael Reavis, who physically moved the pills from Walter to Pettit, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl and was sentenced in April 2022 to 131 months — nearly 11 years — in federal prison.¹¹

Cameron James Pettit, who sold the pills directly to McCormick, initially pleaded not guilty, and his case was still pending at the time of Walter’s sentencing.⁴ Pettit was released from federal custody on October 11, 2024. The specific resolution of his case has not been publicly detailed.¹²

1
LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner. Cause and Manner of Death Determined for Mac Miller
2
DEA. Hollywood Hills Man Arrested on Federal Charges of Selling Fentanyl-Laced Pills
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Arizona Man Agrees to Plead Guilty to Distributing Fentanyl in Connection With Overdose Death of Hip-Hop Artist Mac Miller
4
NPR. Dealer Sentenced to 17.5 Years for His Role in Mac Miller’s Fatal Overdose
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Grand Jury Charges 3 Men in Scheme to Distribute Fentanyl-Laced Pills That Caused Overdose Death
6
DEA. Federal Grand Jury Charges Three Men With Distributing Fentanyl-Laced Pills
7
NBC Los Angeles. Two Men Plead Guilty in LA for Roles in Mac Miller’s Fatal Overdose
8
Rolling Stone. Mac Miller Fentanyl Drug Dealer Sentenced to Prison
9
NorCal Public Media. A Dealer Is Sentenced to 17.5 Years for His Role in Mac Miller’s Fatal Overdose
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ABC7. Mac Miller Death: Westwood Man Sentenced for Fentanyl Overdose
11
CBS News Los Angeles. Ryan Reavis Sentenced to Over 10 Years in Prison
12
Press Democrat. Drug Dealer in Mac Miller Case Released From California Prison