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Press Release

Alton Man Pleads Guilty In Heroin Overdose Death

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Illinois

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced that on Thursday, November 13, 2014, Glenn P. Lowers pled guilty in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois to a federal charge of Distribution of Heroin Resulting In Death.

At his change of plea hearing, Lowers, 21, of Alton, Illinois, admitted that he had sold heroin to his friend Joshua S. Shelton on September 3, 2013. Shelton’s grandfather discovered Shelton’s body at Shelton’s Alton residence a few hours after the heroin sale occurred. An autopsy established that Shelton had died from injecting heroin. Shelton was 21years old when he died.

Lowers’ sentence hearing is scheduled for February 5, 2015. Lowers will be confined until he is sentenced. Lowers faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The investigation which resulted in the successful prosecution of Lowers was conducted by the Alton Police Department.

The case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Robert L. Garrison.

Updated February 19, 2015