MONROE — A Brodhead man will spend nearly three years in prison after he was accused of helping to supply the drugs that killed an Albany man last June, and then violating terms of his initial probationary sentence by getting a 5th OWI arrest in Vernon County.

The reckless homicide charge was dismissed for Matthew B. Riese, 45, of Albany, last March in Green County Circuit Court. He and Shannon J. Woollums of Brodhead were both accused of providing opioids that led to the overdose death of a 37-year-old earlier in 2023, according to a criminal complaint, also filed in Green County Circuit Court. 

But as part of an apparent plea agreement, he was convicted on a single felony of manufacturing narcotics as party to a crime on March 6, 2024, and given a withheld sentence and probation for four years. One of the requirements of that probation was maintaining absolute sobriety. 

According to court records, he was pulled over by deputies in Vernon County and arrested for his 5th OWI charge on April 27, 2024.

In court Monday, before Circuit Judge Faun M. Phillipson for re-sentencing following revocation of his probation, a witness and Riese’s attorney said that he struggles mightily with mental illness and alcoholism and that family and other efforts to get him into long-term treatment for his dual diagnosis have failed.  

“He just broke down and ended up on the sauce,” said his attorney, Michael Murphy.

For his part, Riese hung his head and wiped his eyes, as the judge spoke and heard testimony about how he is a skilled union carpenter who works very hard and wants to start a new life but is dogged by severe mental illness and alcoholism.

“I got complacent,” he told the judge, before resentencing. “My mental health got so bad, that’s all I’ve got to say.”

In re-sentencing Riese, Phillipson said the law compels to her to protect the public while also balancing the need for the defendant to get the intensive help he needs.

The incident leading to the initial reckless homicide arrests began on June 1, 2023, just before 3:55 p.m., with a 911 report of a medical emergency on 6th Street in Albany. 

Deputies, Albany EMS and First Response and Green County EMS all were dispatched to the home for a report of a possible overdose. But despite attempting life-saving measures, those first responders were unable to revive the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene by the Green County Coroner’s Office, police said. 

Another victim was apparently saved by two doses of Narcan while police were on the scene. 

Woollums, Riece’s co-defendant in the homicide case, was sentenced for his role to a 4-year withheld/probation sentence and 90 days in jail with Huber privileges.