By Shereen Siewert
One of two people convicted in connection with a near-fatal overdose of a Wausau man last January will be sentenced next month on reckless endangerment charges after settling eight criminal cases in Marathon County Circuit Court.
Sou Thao, 30, was charged in March 2022 with first-degree recklessly endangering safety, manufacturing or delivering heroin and felony bail jumping in connection with the case. A 21-year-old Mosinee woman, Ivy Zastrow-Hanson, was the first to be charged in the incident. She was convicted in July of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and manufacturing or delivering heroin and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The overdose was reported on Jan. 11, 2022 at a home in the 700 block of Nina Avenue in Wausau. Police say the man who overdosed was given three doses of Narcan by his girlfriend before rescue crews and officers arrived. The man was transported to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where he was treated and questioned.
Zastrow-Hanson was arrested one day later, which led investigators to identify Thao as the man who sourced the drugs that Zastrow-Hanson sold to the man who overdosed.
Court records show Zastrow-Hanson was on probation for a burglary conviction, part of a withheld sentence, when she was arrested.
Thao was charged about six weeks later. At the time of his arrest, he had multiple open cases in Marathon County with charges ranging from intimidating a victim and drug possession to obstruction.
Last month, Circuit Judge Scott Corbett presided over a plea hearing for all eight of Thao’s cases Three dozen charges were dismissed and read into the record, but Thao was convicted of five charges: first-degree recklessly endangering safety, retail theft, intimidating a victim, disorderly conduct and second-offense operating with a restricted controlled substance.
Judge Corbett ordered a presentencing investigation to be completed by early July. Thao, who is behind bars, will be sentenced July 28.
