Trial in death 
of Mingo teen
 further delayed

A second continuance has been granted in the case against a Newton man accused of contributing to the November death of a 19-year-old Mingo girl.

In a private hearing Monday, Jasper County District Court Judge Brad McCall postponed the probation revocation hearing and trial of 19-year-old Wyatt Franklin. According to court documents, the defendant is now scheduled to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter on May 23 for the death of Shasta Sapp.

Investigators with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said that Franklin allegedly prepared and supplied the narcotic pain killer Oxymorphone to the Mingo teen at a Nov. 11 party in Colfax. Sapp was found unresponsive in the early morning hours of Nov. 12 and later pronounced dead at Skiff Medical Center. A toxicology report released Dec. 21, as part of the autopsy performed by the State Medical Examiners office, revealed an overdose of the drug was the official cause of Sapp’s death.

A second man linked to the case, 21-year-old Jason Bissell of Colfax, is accused of providing Sapp with alcohol the night of her death and has been charged with supplying alcohol to a minor. He is free on his own recognizance and will appear in court Wednesday for pretrial comments.

According to Jasper County Sheriff Mike Balmer, toxicology reports showed Sapp did not have alcohol in her system when medical examiners screened the victim, and the charges against Bissell were based on eye witness accounts that the 19-year-old was drinking the night of her death. The department believes the alcohol in Sapp’s system metabolized prior to the autopsy.

The charges have put Franklin in violation of a two-year probation for a Sept. 26 drug conviction. Judge McCall was also scheduled to hold a hearing to consider revoking the 19-year-old’s probation Monday, but he ordered the decision postponed until 1:30 p.m. April 23.

Franklin has been residing at a Mt. Pleasant drug treatment facility as a court-ordered condition of his $35,000 bond. He was released from the Jasper County Jail Jan. 12. Franklin entered a plea of not guilty to the involuntary manslaughter charge on Jan. 9.

Mike Mendenhall can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 422 or via email at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com.