PORTLAND – A Portland heroin dealer whose drug sale was linked to a friend’s fatal overdose has been handed a one-year jail term.

Nancy DeYoung, 22, pleaded guilty Thursday in Cumberland County Superior Court to charges of manslaughter and trafficking in heroin.

Justice Thomas Warren sentenced DeYoung to eight years, with all but one year suspended.

She also must undergo inpatient substance abuse treatment.

The charges resulted from the Jan. 3 death of DeYoung’s friend, Carrie Ladd, 26. It was Portland’s first fatal overdose of the year.

The case was the first in Maine in which a person who provided drugs to a friend was convicted of manslaughter for an overdose death, authorities said.

“This conviction and sentence sends a powerful message that even if you are doing a favor for a friend and that friend dies because you provided the drug that results in an overdose death, you can be convicted of manslaughter and go to prison,” District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said.

At least 17 people have died of drug overdoses this year in Portland, three times as many as died in the same period a year ago.

Attorneys on both sides said the judge tempered his sentence with compassion for a woman who has no criminal history and is extremely remorseful for her role in her friend’s death.

“The state feels that Ms. DeYoung has learned a very hard lesson,” Anderson told the court.

Later, the prosecutor added a warning that this case is “the one and only time” someone like DeYoung would be offered such a light sentence for manslaughter.

“We’re giving her a break,” Anderson said. “She stepped up to the plate and admitted it.”

Nicholas Mahoney, DeYoung’s attorney, called the outcome “a fantastic, compassionate sentence.”

“She’s truly remorseful,” he said of his client, who wept quietly throughout her sentencing.

“All these tears are not for herself, they’re for Carrie,”he said.