OKC woman sentenced to 10 years in overdose death

An Oklahoma City woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for second-degree murder in a 2017 overdose death.

Brenda June Merkel, 59, entered a negotiated plea of guilty this week in the death of Donte Sanders, 22.

Prosecutors said Merkel killed Sanders by providing him with a fentanyl patch.

Sanders died Oct. 14, 2017, from acute fentanyl toxicity, according to the state medical examiner.

Officers went to Merkel’s apartment in north Oklahoma City and found Sanders unresponsive. Merkel, who also goes by Brenda Buerger, is the mother of the victim’s girlfriend, authorities said.

Investigators learned Merkel provided Sanders with the fentanyl patch before he went to bed. Fentanyl is a narcotic used to treat severe pain. Sanders later became unresponsive and died at a hospital.

In 2010, Merkel pleaded guilty in Canadian County District Court to five counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. She admitted to ramming her car into a van with five people inside.

Merkel spent about a year in prison from May 2011 to May 2012. She was incarcerated for methamphetamine possession and the assault and battery offenses, records show.