LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A second man has been arrested in connection with the drug overdose death a year ago of rapper Mac Miller in his Studio City home, according to an Arizona police agency.
Ryan Reavis, 36, of Lake Havasu City, was taken into custody Sept. 23 at his residence and held on a $50,000 bond, said Lake Havasu City police Sgt. Tom Gray. Reavis was booked on suspicion of “fraudulent schemes and artifices, possession of marijuana, prescription drugs and paraphernalia, weapons misconduct by a prohibited possessor, and manufacture of a prohibited weapon,” Gray said.
Lake Havasu City detectives assisted agents from the FBI and the US Drug Enforcement Administration in serving a search warrant that led to the arrest, Gray said.
“The investigation, led by the DEA, is an active case involving the death of music artist Malcolm McCormick, also known as Mac Miller, who had succumbed to an overdose in the Los Angeles area in 2018,” Gray said. “During the search, a physician’s prescription pad, prescription-only pills, a usable amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia were located. In addition, a 9mm pistol, two shotguns, a personally manufactured firearm suppressor and large amounts of ammunition were also found and seized inside the residence.”
Gray declined to elaborate on details regarding any alleged connection between Reavis and Miller, who was discovered unresponsive in his Studio City home on Sept. 7, 2018. The manner of death was certified as accidental, although it was later determined that the 26-year-old rapper died from an overdose of alcohol, cocaine and fentanyl.
Earlier this month, federal agents arrested Cameron James Pettit, 28, of Hollywood Hills, in connection with Miller’s death.
Pettit allegedly supplied Miller with counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl. Miller had asked to be furnished with “percs,” an abbreviation for percocet, a prescribed painkiller containing oxycodone, according to a federal criminal complaint charging Pettit with one count of distribution of a controlled substance.
At his initial federal court appearance in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 4, Pettit was not asked to enter a plea, but he was ordered detained pending trial and was given an Oct. 11 arraignment date.
Prior to the hearing, Assistant US Attorney Matt Jacobs warned of the use of black-market pills.
“People should know that if they consume black-market opioid pills, they’re playing Russian roulette,” the prosecutor said outside the courtroom.
Prosecutors allege Pettit agreed to supply Miller — whose real name was Malcolm James McCormick — with 30 milligram oxycodone pills, as well as cocaine and the sedative Xanax.
Instead of providing Miller with genuine oxycodone when he made the delivery during the early morning hours last Sept. 5, Pettit allegedly sold Miller counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl — a powerful synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin, according to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint.
Two days after Pettit allegedly supplied the rapper with the fentanyl-laced pills, Miller was found dead. The affidavit alleges that hours after news outlets reported the death, Pettit sent a message to a friend saying, “Most likely I will die in jail.”
Investigators believe that Miller died after snorting the counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and that those pills had been provided by Pettit, according to the affidavit. While another suspected dealer supplied Miller with other drugs prior to his death, those narcotics drugs did not contain fentanyl, the affidavit states.
If convicted of the drug trafficking charge alleged in the complaint, Pettit would face up to 20 years in federal prison, according to prosecutors.