Frechette gets 2½ years for manslaughter

GREEN BAY — A Keshena man charged in federal court with second-degree murder for giving a Fentanyl pill to a man who fatally overdosed, was sentenced Jan. 17 to 2½ years in prison and three years’ supervised release.

Ronald J. Frechette Jr., 39, faced a 20-year, mandatory minimum sentence under the original charge but pled guilty in September to involuntary manslaughter, which has an eight-year statutory maximum penalty. However, U.S. District Judge William Griesbach used the advisory sentencing guideline, which had penalties of 24-30 months in Frechette’s case.

Frechette was indicted last March with long-time companion Kelly Nacotee, 41, and Alissa M. Waupoose, 28, all of Keshena. They were charged in connection with the September 2016 overdose death of Scott Perez. Perez, 23, was bedridden and quadriplegic as a result of a 2001 car accident.

The indictment alleged that Waupoose supplied a chemical analog of Fentanyl to Frechette, which he gave to Perez. Also, Nacotee tried to cover up the crime by deleting text messages between Frechette and Perez after learning of Perez’s death.

According to a memo to the court written by Frechette’s attorney, Thomas Wilmouth, Frechette and Nacotee were addicted to Percocet, an opioid pain medication. Waupoose would travel to Milwaukee to obtain the pills and “word got out that she was obtaining pills with a punch. As most everyone on the (Menominee Indian) Reservation (was) then fancying these pills.”

On the day Perez died, Waupoose supplied him with Percocet three times. Concerned that Perez would want a discount for the fourth, Perez got Frechette to obtain a pill from Waupoose for $40, and she would “front” Frechette another pill for his efforts, according to Wilmouth.

Others placed the Fentanyl pill in tinfoil and lit it, causing it to burn and smoke, so that Perez could inhale the fumes through a tube placed in his mouth.

During the investigation of Perez’s death, acquaintances said Frechette brought the pill to Perez. Frechette and Waupoose denied participating in the drug deal for a few years. Frechette finally told authorities of his and Waupoose’s roles in the offense.

Since being indicted with Frechette with distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, Waupoose pleaded guilty in December to distributing a controlled substance and faces an estimated penalty of 0 to 6 months in prison at her March 30 sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Maier had sought a four-year sentence for Frechette while Wilmouth sought a 2½-year sentence.

Wilmouth wrote the court that although his client’s actions resulted in a man’s death, Frechette didn’t warrant a lengthy prison term. Frechette’s actions weren’t willful or premeditated, he said.

Unlike Waupoose, Frechette was not a pill trafficker, according to Wilmouth, and didn’t have a dealer-seller relationship with Perez, who was a friend. Instead, Frechette dealt drugs to feed his own addiction and provide a pill to Perez who he knew was addicted and in need of relief.

Frechette is a lifelong resident of the Menominee Indian Reservation with the exception of five years when he sought employment and treatment for alcohol abuse. He has worked as a truck driver, farmhand and at other jobs.

He was convicted in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court for felony burglary and placed on two years’ probation in June 2015. His probation was revoked due to the federal drug charges.

He also had been convicted in Menominee Tribal Court for domestic violence involving Nacotee, but they appear to be in a harmonious relationship, according to Wilmouth, and their lone son is a deputy with the Menominee County Sheriff’s Department.

Nacotee is scheduled to plead guilty on Jan. 31 to concealing a felony, which carries maximum statutory penalties of three years in prison.