By Shereen Siewert
A judge has issued a warrant for a Wausau man, accused of delivering drugs to a 56-year-old man who was found unresponsive and nearly died twice in a two-day span, after he failed to appear in court.
Shawn McFann, 21, is facing charges of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and delivering heroin in connection with the February 2019 overdoses. First-degree recklessly endangering safety charges are filed when a defendant is suspected of acting “under circumstances which show utter disregard for human life.”
McFann, who had five additional open cases in Marathon County at the time of his arrest, was initially jailed on a cash bond.
Court records show McFann was on probation at the time he allegedly provided the near-fatal dose of heroin to the man, who was discovered without a pulse but was revived with Narcan.
The first overdose happened the afternoon of Feb. 20, 2019, prosecutors say, when rescue crews were called to a home in the 6300 block of Aspen Street in Weston for a report of an unresponsive man. After two doses of Narcan, the man began to breathe on his own, court documents state. Family members initially suspected the man was attempting suicide, but there was no evidence that the man injected himself with the drug.
Two days later, crews in Wausau were called to a Grand Avenue home where the same man was discovered unresponsive on the floor, court documents state.
Later, in interviews, the man who overdosed told police he had been addicted to drugs and alcohol since he was a juvenile, and later became addicted to heroin after being prescribed Fentanyl for pain. Investigators traced the heroin to McFann, who allegedly cut the drug with Fentanyl.
Police were on the lookout for McFann for months before he was arrested on an unrelated charge.
Court records show McFann was granted a deferred sentence in four criminal cases dating back to 2017. That agreement was scuttled in January 2020 after new charges were filed. Later in 2020, McFann was released after posting a cash bond. Since then, McFann failed to appear in court three additional times including an Oct. 12 hearing, when Circuit Judge Suzanne O’Neill forfeited his cash bond and granted the warrant.
A hearing is set for Nov. 11 in the case.
