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.

A repeat drug offender who was accused in a Lawrence woman’s fentanyl death in 2022 has pleaded guilty in new cases to possessing methamphetamine and to violating the offender registration act.

William Byrd, of Lawrence, recently entered the pleas as part of a deal with the state. In one case from March of this year, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office accepted a guilty plea to felony possession of meth and dropped three misdemeanor counts, including two counts of domestic battery and one count of criminal damage to property. In the other case, Byrd agreed to plead guilty to violating the offender registration act, a felony, by failing to register for a period in 2025.

In both cases, the state has agreed to recommend probation if a presentence investigation determines that Byrd falls into a presumptive prison box on the state sentencing grid.

A special rule applies to Byrd’s case that generally requires consecutive sentencing in the two new cases because the felonies were committed while Byrd was on probation, parole or post-release supervision. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 27.

Byrd was sentenced in January 2024 to just under two years in connection with the April 14, 2022, death of 23-year-old Angelyca Cowdin. He was originally charged with distribution of a controlled substance leading to death, but, in a deal with the state, he pleaded no contest in October 2022 to a single count of distribution of fentanyl under 3.5 grams. As part of that deal, Byrd agreed to testify “about the circumstances surrounding Angelyca Cowdin’s death” in the case against the other defendant, Mason Duane Robinson, who was eventually sentenced to 49 months.

Both men were ordered to register as drug offenders for 15 years.

Byrd was also convicted of felony drug possession in November 2018.