Bemidji Woman Pleads Guilty to 3rd-Degree Murder for Drug-Related Death of Man

Becky Lyn Stough (Credit: Beltrami County Jail)

A 44-year-old Bemidji woman has pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree murder for the June 2022 drug-related death of a Bemidji man.

Becky Lyn Stough pleaded guilty Thursday to 3rd Degree Murder-Sell/Give/Distribute Controlled Substance-Schedules I & II. Stough is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27th.

Beltrami County Attorney David L. Hanson reports Stough admitted in court that she sold pills that she knew were laced with fentanyl in the Bemidji area, and that as a result it was foreseeable that someone could die.

Investigators determined the victim, who died of a drug overdose, did not buy the pills laced with fentanyl directly from Stough, but law enforcement was able to tie the pills that killed the victim back to Stough. According to Hanson, this is the first successful prosecution of a drug dealer in the Bemidji community who did not directly give the drugs to the deceased.