photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Mason Duane Robinson appears for his plea hearing Friday, April 26, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

A man who was originally charged in the overdose death of a young Lawrence woman entered a no contest plea Friday to the lesser crime of distributing a controlled substance.

The plea deal that Mason Duane Robinson, 28, cut with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office also guaranteed that multiple other felony cases against him would be dismissed altogether.

photo by: Contributed

Angel Cowdin, left, is pictured with her mother, Mary Cowdin.

Robinson was originally charged with distribution of a controlled substance leading to the death of Angelyca Cowdin, 23, who died in the front yard of her mother’s home on April 14, 2022, after taking a pill allegedly supplied by Robinson and another man, William Byrd, who was also charged in the case. Cowdin’s autopsy report said her cause of death was acute fentanyl intoxication.

Judge Sally Pokorny accepted Robinson’s plea Friday in Douglas County District Court and informed Robinson that when she sentences him on June 6 he faces between 14 months and 51 months in prison, or roughly between one and four years, and that probation is off the table. Robinson will also have to register as a drug offender for 15 years.

The plea deal was arranged by Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald and Robinson’s attorneys, Angela Keck and Branden Smith, who all agreed that Robinson, for sentencing purposes, has the highest criminal history classification.

As the Journal-World has reported, Robinson has convictions in Douglas County for felony criminal threat in 2017 and felony counts of burglary and flee and elude in 2018, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.

Additionally, in the wake of Cowdin’s death, while Robinson was out on bond, he picked up several more felony charges, stemming from alleged car, truck and motorcycle thefts in the summer of 2023 and the alleged possession of fentanyl in July of that year. Greenwald agreed to drop all four of those cases in exchange for Robinson’s no contest plea Thursday to one count of distributing fentanyl.

Greenwald asked Pokorny to jail Robinson immediately, given his history of failing to appear and causing delays for multiple hearings, but Keck asked that he remain free in order to arrange his personal affairs before his sentencing hearing. Pokorny suggested putting Robinson on house arrest with GPS monitoring until his June 6 sentencing date, and both parties agreed. He will also be allowed work-release.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

William Martin Byrd is pictured at a hearing on Aug. 18, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Byrd was originally charged with distribution of a controlled substance causing death but pleaded to the lesser felony of distribution of fentanyl as part of a an agreement with the state where he agreed to testify against his co-defendant, Mason Robinson.

Byrd, who also faced an original charge of distribution of fentanyl leading to Cowdin’s death, pleaded no contest in October 2022 to one count of distribution of fentanyl under 3.5 grams. In January, Pokorny sentenced Byrd to 23 months in prison, as the Journal-World reported. As part of his plea deal, Byrd had agreed to testify “about the circumstances surrounding Angelyca Cowdin’s death” in the state’s case against Robinson.

Byrd was also convicted of a prior count of felony drug possession in November 2018, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Mason Duane Robinson appears for his plea hearing Friday, April 26, 2024, in Douglas County District Court. At right is attorney Branden Smith.