Arizona Man Agrees to Plead Guilty to Distributing Fentanyl in Connection with the Overdose Death of Hip-Hop Artist Mac Miller

          LOS ANGELES – An Arizona man has agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge for supplying counterfeit pharmaceutical pills containing fentanyl to the drug dealer accused of selling them to rapper Mac Miller, who soon afterward suffered a fatal overdose, the Justice Department announced today.

          Ryan Michael Reavis, 38, formerly of West Los Angeles and who moved to Lake Havasu, Arizona in 2019, has agreed to plead guilty to a single-count superseding information charging him with distribution of fentanyl.

          According to a plea agreement filed today, on September 4, 2018, at the direction of co-defendant Stephen Andrew Walter, 48, of Westwood, Reavis knowingly distributed counterfeit oxycodone pills to co-defendant Cameron James Pettit, 30, of West Hollywood.

          Reavis admitted in his plea agreement to knowing that the pills contained fentanyl or some other controlled substance. In fact, the pills contained fentanyl. Shortly after Reavis distributed the fentanyl-laced pills to Pettit, Pettit distributed the pills to 26-year-old rapper Malcolm James McCormick – who recorded and performed under the name Mac Miller – approximately two days before McCormick suffered a fatal drug overdose in Studio City on September 7, 2018.

          Last month, Walter signed a plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to one count of distribution of fentanyl. Both Walter and Reavis are expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks before United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II in Los Angeles.

          The case against Pettit is pending.

          The investigation into this matter was conducted by the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area’s (HIDTA) Opioid Response Team, which operates under the direction of the DEA. The Los Angeles Police Department provided substantial assistance in this matter.

          Assistant United States Attorneys Solomon Kim of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section and Elia Herrera of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.