Sioux Falls, South Dakota — Manarion Fuse, a 21-year-old South Dakota Department of Corrections inmate charged with the overdose death of Anthony Richards, appeared in court via video call on Wednesday at the Minnehaha County Courthouse.
The 20-year-old Richards died on February 6, and Fuse is accused of giving him K2, a synthetic drug that mimics marijuana. Fuse is currently being held at the Jameson Annex on the campus of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, the same facility where he was an inmate during his alleged crime and where Richards died, according to the Department of Corrections.
On Wednesday, a judge entered a not guilty plea for Fuse. A jury trial in his case is set to begin the week of October 6, 2025. According to online court records, Melibu Ross, 50, is scheduled to stand trial on charges of providing the methamphetamine that killed inmate Jason Garreau in another overdose death. Ross allegedly transported the meth during a visit to Garreau on May 14, and the 39-year-old died the following day. Ross, unlike Fuse, was not incarcerated during her alleged crime.
It’s unclear how Fuse obtained the drug that he allegedly supplied to Richards. Court documents do not specify how, and South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley did not elaborate on the issue during a news conference on June 24. On June 12, Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko told KELOLAND News that drugs can enter facilities in a variety of ways.
“We have had them coming in through the mail and through packages, and I would like to further share that with you, but it’s still an active investigation,” Wasko told reporters in June.
According to a spokesperson for South Dakota’s Division of Criminal Investigation, the DCI is investigating four overdose deaths among state prison inmates in Sioux Falls in 2025.
