A 35-year-old Minot man will serve two and a half years in prison for selling heroin in May 2016 to a confidential informant working with the Ward County Narcotics Task Force.

“(Mylin George Wicker) is an addict who gave another addict some drugs to pay for his addiction,” said Ashley Gulke, his defense attorney, during the change of plea hearing in district court in Minot.

Ward County Assistant State’s Attorney Marie Miller argued that dealing drugs causes serious harm to the community and Wicker should serve three years in jail. Miller pointed out that drug addicts have died of overdoses, including one in the past week.

Gulke, arguing for the lighter 2 1/2 year sentence, said Wicker did not sell the drugs to make money and he has a very limited criminal history. Wicker, an addict who has been in custody at the jail since late June, when he violated bond conditions with a drug testing violation, looks far better than he did when Gulke first met with him, said Gulke. She noted that he has put on weight since he has been at the Ward County Jail and no longer “looks like death warmed over.”

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, Wicker sold a gram of heroin for $400 to a criminal informant working for the Ward County Narcotics Task Force on May 25, 2016. The criminal informant later gave Wicker $1,100 to purchase methamphetamine. Wicker took the money and said he had to pick the meth up from another source. Wicker then absconded with the money without delivering the meth to the criminal informant.

Gulke told Cresap that the state’s definition of drug dealing is overly broad. Cresap agreed with Gulke’s recommendation, which he said is more in line with what he has sentenced defendants to in other drug cases.

“I’m not a dealer,” Wicker said, echoing his lawyer. “I’m an addict. I need help.”

Wicker entered Alford pleas to Class B felony delivery of a controlled substance and Class C felony theft of property on Friday in district court in Minot. An Alford plea means he maintains his innocence but acknowledges that state has enough evidence that he might be found guilty at trial. Cresap sentenced Wicker to a total of five years in prison on the delivery charge, with two and a half years suspended, and three years of supervised probation. Wicker was sentenced to a year in prison, with all time suspended except for time already served, for the theft charge and three years of supervised probation. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Cresap will also recommend that Wicker receive drug treatment while he is in prison. He told Wicker that he could be out in less than a year if he follows the directives of the prison system.

Cresap also ordered Wicker to pay $1,350 in court costs for the delivery charge and $1,300 in restitution for the theft charge.