photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Robert Leeroy Hall

The area manager of a local restaurant was sentenced to probation Thursday in Douglas County District Court for his role in the fentanyl death of his best friend, a 32-year-old Lawrence father of two.

At the hearing, Robert Leeroy Hall, 35, the area manager for Jefferson’s Restaurant, apologized to the family of Michael Aron Howell, who died on Oct. 8, 2021, after taking a fentanyl pill provided by Hall, who had obtained it from others who have also been convicted in the case.

“I can’t even begin to say sorry enough,” Hall said, after Hall’s attorney, Hatem Chahine, told the court that the two friends and sometimes coworkers had both been hiding a “serious substance abuse issue,” which had ended fatally for Howell.

Three months ago, Hall pleaded guilty to the felonies of involuntary manslaughter and unlawful distribution of fentanyl as part of a plea agreement with the state, which had originally charged him with the more serious felony of distribution of a controlled substance causing death.

Judge Stacey Donovan sentenced Hall to 32 months in prison for the involuntary manslaughter count and 15 months for the fentanyl distribution count, to run consecutively, but then suspended the 47-month total to 36 months of probation, in line with a plea deal negotiated by the parties. The state, represented by Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald, requested that Hall be required to serve 60 days of shock time. Donovan ordered a 60-day period, but allowed Hall to serve it under house arrest with work release so that he could continue working and attending therapy and substance-abuse programs.

Donovan found that the community’s interests would be better served by Hall, who has no criminal history, receiving substance-abuse and mental health treatment in the community rather than serving a prison term. She noted that he has been sober and gainfully employed in the years since his crimes.

Two of Hall’s employers spoke on his behalf Thursday, telling the court that he had an extraordinary work ethic and had turned his life around.

“I cannot think of someone I’d like to speak for more than Rob,” said Marina Clayton, Hall’s boss at Jefferson’s. “… He has learned from it and grown from it and has become a better person.”

Donovan also noted that Hall’s early cooperation with police was a critical factor in others being brought to justice in the same case, namely prolific drug dealer Randell Mark Smith, who is serving more than four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and distributing fentanyl, and John P. Beckwith, who is serving probation for obtaining the fentanyl from Smith and selling it to Hall, who then provided it to Howell.

In an unusual move, a retired detective with the Lawrence Police Department, Charles Cottengim, who worked Hall’s case, told the court that police had little to go on until Hall admitted his involvement and shared what he knew about the others.

“We would not have been able to go forward with the case without” Hall’s cooperation, said Cottengim, who noted that standing at a lectern at a sentencing to make such a statement was “a first for me.”

Kyleigh Howell, Howell’s widow, expressed displeasure with the slow pace and substance of justice, as well as with public reporting about the crimes that killed her husband, which she said had been horrible for her family.

“It’s been three years” since she lost her husband and her two kids lost their dad, she told the court, and “probation is nothing compared to a lifetime without Michael … It is not justice.”

Directing remarks specifically to Hall, she said: “You have to wake up every morning knowing you killed your best friend and you left him there to die” — a remark echoed by the prosecution but disputed by defense attorney Chahine.

“He didn’t leave him to die,” Chahine said, arguing that Hall dropped off the pill and Howell took it on his own while he was alone at home. “(Hall) didn’t know he overdosed.”

After she handed down Hall’s sentence, Donovan wished him success with sobriety and moving forward with his life.

To Howell’s widow, she said, “I can’t imagine what you have gone through,” but expressed hope that words of solace about her loss and about Thursday’s sentencing would someday feel less “hollow.”

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

John Paul Beckwith is pictured at a sentencing hearing on April 17, 2023, in Douglas County District Court.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Randell Mark Smith, left, appears at his sentencing Monday, March 25, 2024, with his attorney, Thomas Penland.