A 50-year-old Dubuque man faces five federal charges in connection with the July 4 death of a Platteville man.

Alvin Stanley “Junebug” Briggs Jr. was charged with one count of distribution of heroin resulting in death, and four counts of distribution of heroin near a school and a playground.

Briggs made his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Monday, and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Briggs was held without bond. He is scheduled to appear at a detention hearing today at 4:30 p.m.

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 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.

Briggs is also charged with distributing between 0.04 and 0.11 grams of heroin within 1,000 feet of Prescott Elementary School and Jackson Park in Dubuque four times between Jan. 9 and Feb. 6.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa is prosecuting the case. Platteville police and the Dubuque Drug Task Force assisted with the investigation.