PORTLAND — A South Berwick man who supplied drugs to another man who fatally overdosed in 2010 was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to serve five years and 11 months in prison.

Shawn Verrill, 23, had waived indictment and pleaded guilty at his first court appearance March 20 to a charge of distribution of buprenorphine, which is sold under the brand name Suboxone, resulting in the death.

The man who died, Miles Malone, 20, of Atkinson, N.H., had gone to Verrill’s apartment in South Berwick on Oct. 12, 2010, and later died there after obtaining two Suboxone pills from Verrill and taking them, according to court records.

When police arrived at the apartment the next day, Verrill initially denied that he and Malone had taken the drugs and claimed that Malone had fallen asleep after playing video games. But an autopsy showed that Malone died of buprenorphine toxicity, the court records show.

Suboxone is a narcotic medication that is used to treat narcotic addiction.

Police searching Verrill’s apartment, a modified garage attached to his mother’s home, found multiple bottles of pills hidden in a concrete block used as a television stand. A subsequent lab analysis showed that Verrill’s DNA matched the DNA from the cap of the Suboxone bottle, according to court records.

Judge D. Brock Hornby also sentenced Verrill to serve three years of supervised release after completion of his prison term.

Staff Writer Scott Dolan can be contacted at: 791-6304 or at sdolan@mainetoday.com.