ROSEVILLE, Minn. (WCCO) – A St. Paul man has been charged with third-degree murder for allegedly selling heroin and fentanyl to a woman who died of an overdose in 2019.
Bret Ryne Lott, 32, was charged in Ramsey County on Friday. If he is convicted, the maximum sentence for the third-degree murder charge is 25 years in prison.
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According to the criminal complaint, officers responded to a room at the Motel 6 on the 2300 block of Cleveland Avenue for a welfare check on the morning of Nov. 2, 2019.
There, they found a 27-year-old woman lying on a bed. She was cold to the touch.
The room had been rented to Lott, and staff remembered seeing him the day before.
The complaint goes on to say that Lott sent a Facebook message to the woman on Oct. 31, 2019, saying he had “strait bomb.” He sent a photo of suspected heroin to several people, according to court documents. Lott then sent the address for the motel to the victim.
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According to Lott’s mother, he had called her on Nov. 1, saying he was with a woman and using drugs. He then said multiple times that the woman was dead, but didn’t want to call police because he had warrants out for his arrest.
The warrant stemmed from a manufacture and delivery of heroin conviction from September of 2018 in Wisconsin.
On Thursday, Lott was arrested in St. Paul.
In a post-Miranda interview, Lott said he was at the Motel 6 at the time of the woman’s death. He admitted to using and selling drugs, though denied providing the woman with the drugs that led to her death.
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The medical examiner determined the woman’s cause of death to be opiate toxicity.