Ironwood man gets prison for overdose death

By RICHARD JENKINS

rjenkins@yourdailyglobe.com

Bessemer - An Ironwood man was sentenced to prison in Gogebic County Circuit Court Tuesday for his role in the morphine overdose death of Angela Mylly in September.

Bo Lee Menara, 37, was sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and delivery of a controlled substance-morphine charges for giving Mylly part of his morphine prescription. The two five-year sentences will be served concurrently.

"It was (Menara) who went to the residence and asked for a ride so he could get his pills. It was he who went to Hurley and filled his prescription - it was rather large - giving him 90 morphine pills of 60 milligrams. And it was him who made the choice to share those pills ... and of course, when he arrived back at the residence, he made the choice to share those pills with Ms. Mylly," Judge Michael Pope said when imposing his sentence. "But his conduct went beyond just that. That is, Mr. Menara sat and watched as Ms. Mylly used the morphine - used it to an extent that he acknowledged was beyond what even he was capable of as a morphine addict - as he watched her crush the pills and fill the syringe, and then do it a second time and then a third time."

Prior to hearing his fate, Menara heard about the impact his actions continue to have.

"I don't know you, I've never met you, but a man just doesn't do that to a woman. A man would have said, 'No, Angel, you don't need this.' Instead you fed her, you gave her more. Did she have faults? Yes she did," Dolly Nyman, Mylly's mother, said through tears during her victim impact statement. "We were trying to help her and then she gets people like you that just come in her life and just say, 'Here.' What kind of man does that?"

She also talked about the incredible emotional toll the death has taken on the family and the pain they are left with, asking Menara how he would feel if this happened to his daughter.

"Do I wish you dead? No, because I'm not that type of person," Nyman said. "But I hope you (remember) for the rest of your life how you just destroyed our family."

An emotional Menara said he never intended to hurt Mylly, who Ironwood Public Safety Department officers and Beacon Ambulance personnel found unresponsive and not breathing at 6:24 a.m. Sept. 1.

"She asked me for some of my medication, because I know what it's like to be an addict. I know what it's like to withdraw off the medication. It seemed like she was sick that day and I just wanted to help her," Menara said, addressing Mylly's family and friends in the audience. "Yes, it was wrong of me to do it and I shouldn't have. And if I could go back in time and take her place, I would. I would take her place in a second."

He said Mylly was a friend and he prayed daily for the family.

While he acknowledged Menara's substance abuse issues started at the age of 9 and were never formally treated, Pope said Menara failed to meet the basic standards everyone should be held to when he allowed Mylly to overdose.

"He failed at every opportunity to stop her from (overdosing). He failed by not telling her to stop as he watched it. He failed by not taking the pills away from her. He failed by giving her additional pills," Pope said. "... Those are standards every human being has for another human being, and in this case Mr. Menara did not abide by the standards we should all abide by for caring for others."

Menara's attorney, Doug Muskett, argued the case was a tragic accident that was a small part of the nationwide opioid problem.

Calling the epidemic a "pervasive blight on this country," Muskett argued for a more lenient sentence of three to four years in prison.

"I don't think it's going to help, however, this country get over its epidemic if we simply punish the addicts who simply have someone overdose significantly more than those who don't. This is not the case of a murder, there is no intentionality here. No one is saying Bo had any malice towards Ms. Mylly. She was an addict too; and it was a horrible, tragic accident," Muskett said. "It was caused significantly more by the pharmacy companies and the medical system that got us to this point. I don't know how five years in prison is helping anyone."

He said Menara should go to prison, if for no other reason than it gave him more treatment and counseling options to help him overcome his addiction, but no one benefitted from sentencing him to the full five years.

Menara received a jail credit of 283 days for time served prior to sentencing.

He was the second person sentenced in the case. His co-defendant, Lana Rae Seeke, 54, was sentenced to 2.5 years probation – the first year of which will be served in jail – for conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver morphine.

She pleaded guilty in February for arranging a ride for Menara to fill his prescription in exchange for some of the morphine.