An Iron Range man was sentenced to prison Monday for providing the synthetic drug that led to the overdose death of his Duluth girlfriend.

Bryan J. Hodapp, 28, of Eveleth, who earlier pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, was sentenced in St. Louis County District Court to 10 years and two months in prison in connection with the August 2013 death of Krystal Wicklund, 21.

With credit for time served of roughly 15 months since he was charged, Hodapp will be incarcerated for roughly six years before serving the rest of his term on supervised release.

Hodapp provided Wicklund with a substance known as 25I-NBOMe, commonly called "N bomb." Medical researchers have associated this type of synthetic drug with at least 17 deaths in the United States since 2010.

Wicklund ingested the drug while the two were at Giants Ridge near Biwabik. As the two were heading to a friend's apartment, she began "having a bad trip," the criminal complaint read. Once at the apartment, she began vomiting and having convulsions. She was hospitalized and died that same day.

"It is my hope that this conviction and sentence sends the message to drug dealers in our towns and cities that the law enforcement community and the St. Louis County Attorney's Office will vigorously pursue the prosecution of these cases," Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Gordon Coldagelli said in a statement accompanying announcement of the sentence. "The greatest justice for the family of Krystal Wicklund would be for the prosecution of this case to have a chilling effect on the distribution of drugs that are killing people in our communities."

Wicklund graduated from Duluth Denfeld High School in 2011 and was studying social work at Lake Superior College, according to her family.

The drug that killed Wicklund is the same one that caused the death in January 2014 of Tara Fitzgerald, 17, who was midway through her junior year at Woodbury High School.

That case resulted in the convictions of two adults and three teenagers who had bought and sold the specific drug package that eventually reached Fitzgerald.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482