Friends and family filled the defenses’ side of the Common Pleas Courtroom on Thursday to show support for Kyle Nelson. Nelson was convicted of selling the drugs that killed another man. As he was being led from the courtroom to begin his six-year prison sentence, Nelson waved goodbye. Some of the assembled responded by offering him a raised fist of solidarity.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Mac Cordell)
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The friend and drug dealer of a man found dead in the White Castle parking lot will spend the next six years in prison.
Kyle Edward Nelson, 26, of 811 Hickory Dr., Marysville, was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison. In July, Nelson pleaded guilty to one count each of involuntary manslaughter, trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in drugs and trafficking in marijuana.
The charges stem from the October overdose death of Frank Tocci, 55, of Dublin.
“I think about him every day and wish we had made better decisions on the night he passed,” Nelson told Tocci’s family in court.
On Oct. 15, Nelson sold Tocci drugs.
The next day, Tocci went to his job at Honda of America but left when a supervisor noticed him acting differently and asked him to take a drug test.
At about 9 a.m. that day, Tocci went to the Marysville White Castle, parked and put his seat down.
Eventually Tocci’s car turned off Wednesday afternoon, likely because it ran out of gas.
An employee parked next to Tocci’s car, saw he wasn’t moving and went to get help. The employee and her boss looked in the car and realized he was dead.
The cause of death was ruled as an overdose from cocaine and Xanax. Officials said they don’t know whether the overdose was intended. The death was eventually ruled to be accidental.
Detectives became aware of Nelson through another case. Champaign County Sheriff’s deputies stopped another one of Nelson’s alleged buyers. The stopped buyer eventually gave the drugs to the deputy and worked with investigators to identify Nelson.
At Thursday’s hearing, Nelson apologized to Tocci’s family as well as his own. He said he looks forward to going home but will “make the best” of the prison sentence he eventually received. Nelson promised Common Pleas Court Judge Don Fraser he would never be back in the courtroom.
Larry Nelson, Kyle’s father, echoed that promise.
The father said his son is a good kid. He said Kyle had a stable upbringing, but got in with a bad group of friends and got involved with drugs.
“No one knows Kyle better than I do, but obviously, there were things I didn’t know,” Larry Nelson told the court.
He said his son was doing better and time in jail, away from drugs, “cleared his mind.”
Fraser told Nelson that overdose death cases are “difficult cases for the court to resolve.”
The judge says he believes Nelson never meant to hurt his friend, “but you did.”
“We can’t bring them back, but we know they have drug issues,” Fraser said.
Fraser said he believes Nelson is genuinely remorseful, but he has to protect the public.
“It is paramount that we get the message out that if you do something like this, you aren’t going to get just a slap on the hand,” Fraser said.
Assistant Union County Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Hamilton requested an eight-year prison sentence. He said that has been “an office directive” for prosecutors dealing with a defendant who sold drugs leading to an overdose death.
Before imposing the sentence, Fraser told Nelson it would be “the lower end or the medium end of the scale.”
In addition to the six-year prison term, Fraser said Nelson must also serve five years of community control after his release.
Union County Prosecutor David Phillips and Sheriff Jamie Patton have each said they are diligent about prosecuting traffickers who supply drugs in a fatal overdose.
“Anytime we can identify a trafficker in drugs, we will go after them,” Phillips said after Nelson was arrested. “If we can arrest that person, prosecute that person, it really benefits the entire community.”