photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Harlan Epps, left, appears Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, with attorney Angela Keck in Douglas County District Court.

A man who had originally been charged with distributing a drug that caused a 39-year-old Lawrence man’s death pleaded no contest on Friday to the lesser crime of simple distribution of fentanyl.

Harlan Epps had been charged in the overdose death of Justin Jones, who died in his home on June 5, 2023. On Friday, Senior Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple and Epps’ defense attorney, Angela Keck, presented a plea agreement to Judge Amy Hanley outlining that in exchange for Epps’ plea they would jointly recommend a 24-month prison sentence suspended to 18 months of probation. Kemple said that Jones’ family was “comfortable” with that outcome.

However, it will be up to Hanley to decide on a sentence pursuant to state guidelines. She told Epps that, with his criminal history, he fell into a presumptive-prison box on the Kansas sentencing grid so she would have to make specific findings at his sentencing hearing on April 27 that probation would be appropriate; this would include a finding that better treatment options for drug and mental health issues exist in the community than in prison.

Epps shook the prosecutor’s hand after the hearing and thanked her.

Hanley agreed to let Epps off of house arrest pending sentencing after his attorney represented that he had not had any compliance issues. Epps will have to register for 15 years as a drug offender.

According to Kansas Department of Corrections records, Epps was convicted in Wyandotte County of felony possession of narcotics in 2007 and aggravated escape from custody in 2009.