A Barrie man says he has ‘turned his life around’ since pleading guilty to trafficking and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
Ryan McPhail appeared clean-cut, soft-spoken, and honest in a Barrie courtroom during his sentencing hearing on Friday.
He admitted to making some terrible choices while being addicted to drugs, but the 24-year-old maintains he never meant to deal a deadly drug concoction to a former high school acquaintance.
“I tried to warn her,” he said. “I never would have intentionally given my friend fentanyl. It was an accident.”
The judge questioned why he never told his friend that she was given fentanyl after realizing his mistake.
“I wish I could go back in time, but I can’t,” McPhail said. “I told her that’s the wrong bag, don’t touch it.”
Five people, all in their 20s, took the drugs at a party in downtown Barrie in October 2016. Each was later taken to hospital in medical distress after collapsing.
McPhail testified he thought he sold cocaine, but toxicology tests showed it was a deadly mix of heroin and opioid fentanyl.
The next few weeks are reserved for final written statements from both the Crown and defense.
The Crown is asking for six years behind bars, but the defence wants a more lenient sentence.
Sentencing is scheduled for February 7.
