Staff report

A St. Paul man who has been held in the Pierce County Jail since Dec. 24, 2019, was found guilty in the fall and was sentenced to prison last week for his part in the 2017 homicide death of a River Falls man.

Orlando P. Eaton, 32, has been held in the jail on a warrant for failing to appear to a court date and for felony bail jumping.

Criminal charges were filed against Eaton in 2019 following an arrest warrant being issued in the May 9, 2017 overdose death of Patrick Pace. Pace was a 2003 graduate of River Falls High School.

A warrant also named Dante J. Ackerman of Lakeland, MN in the case, though SENTENCE

court records don’t show charges filed against him.

A criminal complaint in the case states that River Falls Police Department officers were dispatched to a residence at 401 Church St., where Pace was deceased in his bedroom. A package of heroin was found in the room. Police were told that Ackerman reportedly had been at the residence the night Pace died.

The Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly had also been working with the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office in a case involving Ackerman, and Eaton had been under investigation at the time of Pace’s death also.

Eaton reportedly went by the nickname “Pete.” A reported “cooperating defendant” told investigators that Eaton had been supplying heroin. Pace reportedly had called Eaton four times in March 2017. More telling, he called him twice the day he reportedly died from the overdose.

Eaton reportedly sent a text message that state “I’m good the best,” in talking about his heroin.

Investigators uncovered text messages between the men and cell phone data that pinpoints their locations. Ackerman reportedly picked up Eaton the day he died, and they drove to Eaton’s residence in St. Paul. Pace returned to River Falls shortly after 7:30 p.m.

Ackerman’s phone reportedly contained a text that “his best friend pat O.D.’d.” He reportedly texted that he had tried to revive Pace but may have made the situation worse,

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and he didn’t have a phone to call for emergency help.

The Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office assisted with the investigation in the case and the prosecution, court records show.

A jury reportedly found Eaton guilty of Reckless Homicide/Deliver Drugs, and he was sentenced Jan. 28 to five years in prison and five years of extended supervision. Eaton is not allowed to use alcohol or illegal drugs. He also cannot “possess body armor, vote or possess a firearm.”