Jefferson City Inmate Pleads Guilty in Inmate’s Death

A 42-year-old inmate at the Jefferson City Correctional Center has pleaded guilty in the drug overdose death of another inmate.

The Jefferson City News-Tribune reports that Kartez Hardin accepted a plea deal Wednesday and was sentenced to 15 years for distribution of heroin. Prosecutors dropped a second-degree murder charge.

Cole County prosecutors say Hardin sold heroin to 38-year-old Gregory Medley, who died of a heroin overdose at the prison in November 2015.

Medley was serving 30 years for assault and other convictions out of Greene County.

Hardin is serving a 75-year sentence for a 2010 case out of St. Louis. He was convicted of forcible rape, kidnapping, child endangerment and several other charges.