A Mounds View man was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for the drugging death of a 43-year-old woman he met on Tinder.
Edward Antonio Zappa, 40, will spend five years in the St. Cloud prison followed by 2½ years on supervised probation for overdosing Thea Renae Toles with GHB during a date in 2019. He was sentenced by Ramsey County District Judge David Brown and credited with 256 days time served.
“I feel my sister was going through a recent break-up and she wanted somebody to be there and not judge her,” Ruth Toles, Thea’s younger sister, said of Thea’s decision to meet Zappa through the online dating app. “She was loved by her family.”
Ruth Toles carried a picture of her sister with her to the hearing and she said Zappa’s sentence was too light for the loss she and her family have suffered.
The Ramsey County attorney’s office argued for 129 months, or 10 years. The defense cast Toles as a willing participant who agreed to meet Zappa alone at his house.
According to the criminal complaint, Toles met Zappa on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 2019. Text messages show Zappa told Toles he would provide “smokes” and GHB, also known as the date rape drug.
He called 911 the next day to report that she was not breathing. At the time, he told police he was not aware that Toles had taken any drugs. Police reported that Toles appeared to have been dead for several hours.
The Ramsey County medical examiner found that she had 340 mcg/ml of GHB in her system. GHB levels greater than 260 mct/ml can cause deep sleep or coma. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death to be GHB toxicity.
Zappa originally was charged with third-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. He pleaded guilty Aug. 10 to manslaughter. The murder charge was dismissed.
Zappa has six prior felony convictions including assault, drugs, domestic assault, theft and burglary.
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