A Newton man who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 12, 2011 death of Mingo teen Shasta Sapp was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday in Jasper County District Court.

Judge Randall Hefner ruled Wyatt A. Franklin, 20, will serve a maximum of 5 years in prison for the crime of involuntary manslaughter (a class D felony). The court also revoked the probation Franklin was serving during the time of Sapp’s death. He received a deferred judgment in September 2011 on controlled substance violations. Franklin has been ordered to serve maximum 10- and five-year sentences concurrently for the drug convictions. They will run consecutively with his sentence for involuntary manslaughter. The judge’s sentence mirrored the recommendation given by the state and Jasper County Attorney Mike Jacobsen.

Sapp, 19, was found unresponsive at 866 W. 120th St. S. in Colfax during the afternoon of Nov. 12, 2011, and later pronounced dead at Skiff Medical Center. Witnesses told authorities that Sapp, Franklin and friends were attending a party at the residence the night prior to her death, and party attendees left her unattended after she passed out. A toxicology report released Dec. 21, 2011 as part of the autopsy performed by the state medical examiner’s office revealed an oxymorphone overdose as the official cause of Sapp’s death.