MONROE — A 21-year-old woman who struggled with heroin addiction herself pleaded guilty to reckless homicide for the heroin overdose death of a man in her circle of friends.

Mikquel D. Severson, Stoughton, was sentenced July 12 to one year in jail and 10 years on probation. Conditions of her probation include absolute sobriety and continued employment and drug treatment.

Severson faced up to 40 years in prison for the Class C felony conviction of first-degree reckless homicide by the delivery of a Schedule I or II drug.

But her defense attorneys and District Attorney Craig Nolen reached a joint recommendation of jail time and a lengthy probation.

“The mother of the victim was in agreement with the resolution,” Nolen said later by phone.

The only part of the resolution the mother disagreed with was allowing Severson to have work release privileges while in jail, but Judge Thomas Vale followed the attorneys’ recommendation to allow for it.

While the case was pending, Severson completed an inpatient drug rehab program at a hospital in Oconomowoc and has continued with medication-assisted treatment, Nolen said.

“These cases are incredibly tough from the state’s perspective,” he said, comparing it to a recent homicide by drunken driving case in Green County in which the young defendant’s friend was killed in a crash. Like the defendant in that case, Severson has no prior criminal record.

Severson’s victim, Daniel Lee “Danny” Farrell, was 24 years old and died alone at his home on Bowman Street in Brooklyn on Jan. 23, 2018, after injecting himself with heroin. His mother told an investigator her son had struggled with a heroin addiction for five years.

Farrell had recently gotten out of rehab, Nolen said.

Farrell’s obituary describes him as a “gentle soul” and hard worker who loved his dog and his younger sister.

Severson sold him the heroin that caused his overdose and was herself struggling with addiction, having first tried the drug at age 14 or 15. She was not present when he died.

“She’s a drug dealer in the sense that every heroin user is a drug dealer,” Nolen said. “They purchase off of somebody and then they subdivide it out amongst their peer group.

“It was just the most unfortunate of circumstances.”

Severson is currently working a job at a hospital in Madison but returning nightly to the Huber work release wing of the Green County Jail, Nolen said.