WHATCOM COUNTY, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A Ferndale woman has been sentenced in connection with a fatal overdose from six years ago.
Court records state 60-year-old Sheila R. Johnson will spend just over a year in prison after pleading guilty to dealing cocaine.
She was arrested in August 2020 following a months-long investigation into the overdose death of 31-year-old Evan Parberry of Ferndale the previous March.
Johnson initially faced manslaughter and controlled substance homicide charges for providing the cocaine that Parberry ingested before he died. But the charges were reduced after she agreed to a plea deal where she will testify at the upcoming trial of Kim Ribble, who was also implicated in Parberry’s death.
The Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office attributed Parberry’s death to a mix of drugs, mainly counterfeit fentanyl-laced prescription pills, but said the cocaine that Johnson provided increased his risk of overdosing.
Ribble’s jury trial is scheduled for Aug. 3, where she faces manslaughter and controlled substance homicide charges for allegedly arranging the sale of pills that killed Parberry.
A third man who dealt the pills, Brezeddric Jamerson, was sentenced to over eight years in prison in 2023.
