A 50-year-old Dubuque man charged in connection with the death of a Platteville man July 4 is being held without bail before his trial on five federal charges.
Alvin Stanley “Junebug” Briggs Jr. is charged with one count distribution of heroin resulting in death and four counts of distribution of heroin.
Briggs pleaded not guilty to the five charges at his arraignment in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids March 25.
At a bond hearing March 27, Chief Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles granted the U.S. attorney’s motion to hold Briggs without bond before his trial.
The trial is scheduled for May 20 in Cedar Rapids. A status conference is scheduled for April 24 at noon.
Briggs faces a sentence of 24 years with supervised release to life imprisonment, in addition to $9 million in fines, if convicted and sentenced to the maximum for the charges.
Briggs is accused of giving $100 in heroin to a man named in the federal grand jury indictment as “S.R.” on July 3, and that “the death of S.R. resulted from the use of the substance.”
Stephen Todd Rech, 28, Platteville, was found unresponsive in the front yard of a house on the 500 block of Cedar Street July 4 just before 3 a.m. Rech was pronounced dead at Southwest Health Center in Platteville.
According to the detention order, Briggs told Platteville Police Detective Matthew Harcus that he had been “selling heroin and crack cocaine for the past four to five years.” The detention order also said that Briggs told federal authorities that, except when he was in prison, Briggs has used a half-gram of heroin daily for the past 10 years.
Briggs is also charged with selling to a Dubuque police confidential informant 0.11 grams of heroin Jan. 9, and between 0.04 and 0.07 grams of heroin three times between Jan. 29 and Feb. 6 for $50 each.
The sales took place within 1,000 feet of Prescott Elementary School and Jackson Park in Dubuque, according to federal court records.
Briggs was on probation on a 2012 conviction for two counts of possession of a controlled substance. Briggs has what the detention order called “an extensive criminal record,” including a three-year prison sentence on charges of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, a two-year prison sentence on a California conviction for sale or transport of marijuana, and a 2009 conviction for possession of a controlled substance.
Briggs’ criminal record also includes convictions for theft, burglary, disorderly conduct — solicitation of a lewd act, possessing or selling a stolen vehicle, and charges of aggravated assault, operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of burglar tools, and criminal trespass.
