Hastings man sentenced to more than 9 years for supplying heroin that killed woman

A Hastings man was sentenced Thursday to a 9 ¹⁄₂ -year term for providing the heroin that killed a 50-year-old woman.

Jason M. Slattum, 42, was sentenced in Dakota County District Court after pleading guilty to third-degree murder in connection with the death of Michelle Cahill, 50, also of Hastings, on July 11, 2020.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Slattum will serve more than 5 ¹⁄₃ years in prison and the balance on supervised release. As part of the plea deal, an illicit drug charge filed against him in January 2020 was dismissed.

The two had purchased the drug from someone named Jay, later determined to be Slattum, the husband told investigators.

On the day of Cahill's death, police received a call to an apartment, according to the criminal complaint. Cahill's husband said his wife of 30 years was in the bedroom. Officers found her not breathing and without a pulse. She was pronounced dead.

The medical examiner found she died of mixed-drug toxicity attributed to fentanyl, heroin and acetyl fentanyl.

Police found a straw and a brown powder in the apartment, which later tested positive for fentanyl. The woman's husband said they had both ingested heroin the previous night. His wife had used more of the drug at 2:30 a.m. on the day she died, the complaint said.

Cahill's survivors included three children and five grandchildren.