photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Shawnee County Sheriff's Office

Mason Robinson is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

A Lawrence man was sentenced to more than four years in prison on Thursday as part of a plea agreement in a fentanyl overdose death case.

The man, Mason Duane Robinson, 28, was originally charged in Douglas County District Court with distributing a controlled substance causing death. The charge was in connection with the death of Angelyca LeAnn Cowdin, 23, of Lawrence, who died of acute fentanyl intoxication on April 14, 2022, as the Journal-World reported.

In April, Robinson pleaded no contest to the reduced charge of felony distribution of fentanyl as part of a plea agreement that also dismissed four other felony cases in which he was alleged to have stolen multiple vehicles and been in possession of narcotics.

On Thursday, Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced him to 49 months, just over four years, in prison and ordered him to register as a drug offender for 15 years. Pokorny said that Robinson had 17 convictions in his past, giving him the highest criminal history score possible. She awarded him 241 days, roughly eight months, of time served in jail against his sentence and said he would be eligible for 20% good time credit while in prison, meaning he could be released in as little as 32 months.

At the sentencing, there were about six people in attendance in support of Robinson, some of them wearing T-shirts that said “Free Mason” on them. No one spoke on his behalf, and he declined to speak himself.

Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald said that Cowdin’s mother had been contacted for the hearing but that she declined to attend.

Robinson’s co-defendant in the case, William Martin Byrd, 38, pleaded no contest in October 2022 to one count of distribution of fentanyl under 3.5 grams and was sentenced to 23 months in prison. He was also originally charged with distributing a controlled substance causing death but had agreed to testify against Robinson as part of a plea agreement to reduce his charge. He served the entirety of his sentence in the Douglas County jail waiting for Robinson’s case to move forward through numerous delays and failures to appear in court by Robinson.

Robinson has previous felony convictions for burglary, criminal threat and multiple incidents of fleeing from police, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records. He had been charged in Shawnee County with felony burglary and misdemeanor theft shortly after entering his plea in the fentanyl case, but according to court records that charge was dismissed after the victim declined to pursue the charges.