A Manitowoc man will serve eight years' probation for his role in a 2019 overdose death

MANITOWOC - A 40-year-old Manitowoc man was given a "lengthy" prison sentence for felony charges stemming from a 2019 overdose death, but that sentence was stayed and he will instead serve eight years of probation. 

Christopher B. Seefeldt appeared in Manitowoc County Circuit Court on Monday for a sentencing hearing, along with more than a dozen friends and family.

Seefeldt was arrested in October 2019 after Manitowoc officers received autopsy results showing a 49-year-old man he had sold fentanyl and other drugs to died. 

Ann Larson, Seefeldt's attorney, said in court on Monday that since Seefeldt left the jail he has completed drug addiction recovery programs and is now actively volunteering in the recovery community. 

Christma Rusch, executive director of the Lighthouse Recovery Community Center in Manitowoc, told the court that Seefeldt has become a "man of service" and he is doing many things to improve his life and the recovery community as a whole. 

"He's part of the solution," Rusch said. 

District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre said to impose probation without a prison sentence would "depreciate the seriousness of the situation." 

"This has been extremely devastating to the victim's family," LaBre said. 

Judge Jerilyn Dietz said she didn't want to detract from the seriousness of Seefeldt's offenses, but she also has realized incarceration doesn't work to prevent drug addiction and related offenses. 

"The community deserves to have you working to help other addicts in recovery … and hopefully we can prevent another case like this," she said. 

Dietz sentenced Seefeldt to five years of imprisonment on the endangering safety charge and to seven and a half years of imprisonment on the delivering fentanyl charge. She stayed both of those sentences.

Instead, Seefeldt will serve eight years of probation with conditions that include completing assessments and treatment as recommended by his probation agent, and maintaining sobriety and employment.

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He will also serve nine months in the county jail as a condition of his probation, which he will need to report for by Dec. 24. 

Police records show officers checked on the welfare of the 49-year-old on July 30 after he did not show up to work for several days. After repeated attempts to contact the man by phone and knocking on the door, officers broke into his residence and found him dead on the kitchen floor. They also found a substance that looked like heroin with a plate and a rolled-up dollar bill.

Seefeldt was charged with first-degree reckless homicide through delivering drugs and delivering Schedule II narcotics. Through a plea deal with the State of Wisconsin, those charges were changed to first-degree recklessly endangering safety and delivering fentanyl, both of which Seefeldt pleaded no contest to. 

Contact Alisa Schafer at aschafer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AlisaMSchafer.