[1]Robert T. Lusk faces Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler this afternoon in Chehalis.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The Chehalis man who provided the heroin that killed 23-year-old Tyson J. Anderson two years ago admitted what he did in court today, and will go to prison.
Robert T. Lusk, 37, has been locked up awaiting trial since his arrest last June.
Anderson died of a drug overdose one night – after he and his girlfriend went out to dinner and then shopping at Wal-Mart – at her apartment in Centralia. It took more than a year, but Centralia police tracked down who he’d gotten it from.
[2]Tyson J. Anderson, April 2013
Lusk pleaded guilty today to controlled substance homicide, clearing his throat slightly before answering the judge, hands cuffed in his lap.
The offense doesn’t include any elements of maliciousness or intent for a person to die. Only that he delivered the heroin to Anderson, that Anderson used the heroin and Anderson died from the heroin.
Anderson was a fairly new drug court participant at the time, and the father of a little girl.
Lusk faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The standard sentencing range that applies, given his criminal history, is 68 to 100 months of incarceration.
In exchange for his guilty plea, Lewis County prosecutors dropped a second charge of delivery of heroin, related to the same incident. Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead indicated to the judge this afternoon, that would have been “folded into it anyway.”
Halstead put in its place one count of first-degree driving with a suspended license, a charge actually out of Thurston County.
Defense attorney Erik Kupka and Halstead scheduled a hearing for sentencing on April 1. They said they have agreed to recommend to the judge at that time that Lusk be given 68 months and one day.
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For background, read “Centralia heroin death leads to criminal charge for person who allegedly supplied the drug” from Wednesday June 11, 2014, here [3]