MANKATO — Patrick Oterigho Isiakpere Jr. — the last of three people sentenced in relation to drug overdoses involving three juveniles in Mankato — was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Monday.
The juveniles did not die but two were hospitalized after taking pills that one of the juveniles said they had obtained from Isiakpere Jr. and Damarcus Deontay Holloway in January of this year.
The juvenile told police that he and another juvenile met the two men for a trip to Minneapolis to “pick up pills,” according to a criminal complaint. The juvenile told police that Isiakpere obtained 300 pills at a Minneapolis residence and took possession of a handgun that Holloway had in the car. When they returned to Mankato, the complaint states Isiakpere paid the two juveniles for fuel and gave them five pills each.
After smoking the pills on Jan. 31, the juvenile said he “could tell the pills were stronger than pills he had smoked in the past” and the juveniles ended up in the hospital with suspected fentanyl overdoses. Following the interview with law enforcement, Minnesota River Drug Task Force agents obtained a search warrant for Isiakpere’s Mankato residence, which he reportedly shared with Tia Renee Schwichtenberg, and for two vehicles registered to Schwichtenberg.
Police detained the three suspects after they left the residence in one of the vehicles. The vehicle contained a black felt bag in the driver’s side door holding 119 pills and about 3.7 grams of suspected cocaine, according to the criminal complaint.
Holloway was sentenced to five years in state prison in May on drug sales and firearm violations, and Schwichtenberg was sentenced in August to three years of supervised probation for drug possession and child endangerment.
Task Force agents presented their case against Isiakpere, who has multiple felony convictions including for robbery and burglary, to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in late February. Isiakpere was indicted April 20 and pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in June to two counts of felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
On Monday, the 144-month federal prison sentence was handed down.