Criminal Court Judge Amanda Dunn on Wednesday sentenced 30-year-old Morgan Nicole Copeland to 20 years in prison for the overdose death of 39-year-old Nicholas Jackson.
Prosecutor Chris Post said the sentence for second-degree murder must be served at 100 percent under state law.
She had faced between 15-60 years.
Judge Dunn noted that Ms. Copeland did not speak at the hearing and there had been "no acceptance of responsibility."
She said Ms. Copeland knew when she sold the drugs that people had been dying of overdoses - especially around that time period in March 2018.
Prosecutor Post said, "She wasn't selling Girl Scout cookies. She was selling heroin." He said it turned out that the drug she sold to Mr. Jackson contained deadly fentanyl. He said it was not generally known at the time about the dangers of fentanyl, but he said, "It's a horrible problem now."
It was found that the victim in the case had a fentanyl level more than twice a fatal dose.
The prosecutor said Ms. Copeland was selling drugs belonging to her then boyfriend, "Q Tip" Howard, to get money to bond him out of jail.
Attorney Charles Dupree asked for a 15-year sentence. He said a probation report showed her to be of low risk to reoffend. He said in recent years she had married Daniel Hall and lived with him on a farm at Rogersville, Tn. He said they have two young children. It was testified earlier that Ms. Copeland has eight children in all, with "drug dealer" Howard being one of the fathers.
Det. Larry Posey said Ms. Copeland had made over 1,000 phone calls since being incarcerated. He said he listened to up to 250 of them. Some excerpts were played at the hearing.
On one, Ms. Copeland's in-laws said they had not known her at the time of the overdose. Prosecutor Post said the defense during the trial had sought to show that Ms. Copeland was with the family at Rogersville riding horses the day of the overdose.
In other excerpts, Ms. Copeland told of buying illegal pills from another inmate and laughingly told a family member on a call from the Silverdale Jail, "Don't tell anybody, but I smoked crack today."
Steve Jackson said Nick Jackson was their only son. He said his death "has ruined my life." He said he had "spent 40 years working two jobs" to set up a business that his son could continue.
He said Nick Jackson had a bad auto accident when he was 19 and had trouble getting a job afterwards. He said he had three back surgeries. He said he had gotten into drug use from all the pain medication.
Mr. Jackson said, "You think you've been through some bad times until you lose a child. There's nothing worse."