MUNCIE, IN — A plea agreement, if accepted by Delaware Circuit Court 4 Judge John Feick, will resolve a case against a Muncie man that stems from a fatal overdose.
In June 2024, Feick found Ricky L. Taylor, now 26, guilty of three drug-related charges, including aiding, inducing or causing dealing in a narcotic drug.
The judge later imposed a 41-year prison term. However, the Indiana Supreme Court — in a 3-2 vote in December — overturned the dealing-resulting-in-death conviction.
Taylor had been accused of supplying the fentanyl to a co-defendant, who in turn provided the drug to a Delaware County teenager, who fatally overdosed.
After his arrest in November 2023, Taylor reportedly admitted he routinely dealt the “blue M30” pills and had sold pills to 18-year-old Jaxon Engle, who in January 2025 was sentenced to 60 years in prison after being found guilty of charges stemming from two overdose deaths.
The Supreme Court ruled a pretrial statement Engle gave linking Taylor to the fentanyl should not have been admitted as evidence.
Prosecutors said they will continue to pursue the dealing-resulting-in-death charge.
Taylor was scheduled to stand trial a second time on that count in late June, but he instead signed a plea agreement, which the judge took under advisement.
The deal reduces the charge against Taylor from a Level 1 felony, with a maximum 40-year sentence, to a Level 3 felony, carrying up to 16 years in prison.
If Feick accepts the deal, the Muncie man on July 22 will receive a 10-year sentence — with three years suspended — that will be served at the same time as a seven-year term imposed for his two other convictions, dealing in a narcotic drug and conspiracy to commit dealing in a narcotic drug.
Taylor is the defendant in four other criminal cases pending in Delaware County courts.
In one of those cases, he is charged with intimidation over allegations he made threats on Facebook Live to “smoke” a 47-year-old Muncie woman if he determined she had played a role in the recent homicide of his friend.
In another Delaware County case, Taylor is charged with unlawful carrying of a handgun and resisting law enforcement over allegations that he posted images of himself on Facebook Live displaying a firearm and threatening to shoot people.
The Muncie resident was sentenced to time already served in jail in January 2018 after he pleaded guilty to criminal recklessness in a Muncie man’s 2017 shooting.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Plea deal reached in Delaware County dealing-resulting-in-death case
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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By Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press | USA TODAY Network
