Man gets prison for role in stepson's death

ALBION -- A southern Illinois man once accused in his 5-year-old stepson's medicine-related death has been ordered to spend seven years in prison on a drug count.

Twenty-five-year-old Joshua Nash pleaded guilty Friday in Edwards County to a felony count of delivering a controlled substance. Prosecutors dropped a charge of drug-induced homicide.

His wife, 25-year-old Crystal Nash, was sentenced three days earlier to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to drug-induced homicide and delivery of a controlled substance.

Authorities say Crystal Nash's son, Jason Hoy, died after ingesting a codeine-containing headache medicine in June. An autopsy determined the boy had eight times the recommended dosage.

The drug charge accused the Nashes of supplying some of the boy's medicine to a houseguest.