Fond du Lac man gets 15-year sentence for woman’s drug overdose death

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (WBAY) - A 43-year-old Fond du Lac man will spend at least 7 years in prison for a woman’s death from a combination of drugs.

Robert L. Harris was sentenced Monday to 15 years in state custody: 7 years of confinement and 8 years on extended supervision.

Harris faced up to 25 years in prison for the death of a woman at his rooming house. Police responded to a report of a drug overdose at 2:43 in the morning on May 31, 2020. Harris said they tried giving the woman Narcan after she fell unconscious, then called 911 seven to 10 minutes later. Police found evidence of drug use around the room. They found packaging for a Narcan nasal spray but never found a spray bottle. The woman was pronounced dead, and an autopsy found a mix of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol in her system, along with needle tracks on her right arm.

At his sentencing, Harris apologized to her family and told the court he didn’t feel he was “arrested” as much as he was “rescued” from opioid addiction, the district attorney said. Harris was also initially charged with maintaining a drug trafficking place and recklessly endangering safety. Those charges were dismissed, but the judge could consider them when deciding how harsh Harris’s sentence would be.