An Alabama man charged in the death of a friend during a bachelor party in Florida has been sentenced to prison.

John David “J.D.” Nabors, a 28-year-old Mountain Brook man, was indicted on felony charges of distributing a controlled substance causing death.

Thomas Gleason, a 26-year-old University of Alabama graduate, died of fentanyl poisoning in May 2022, days after collapsing during a weekend with friends in Florida’s Santa Rosa Beach.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday announced Nabors has been sentenced to eight years in prison followed by five years of probation.

“This case relied heavily on witness testimony proving Nabors provided the drugs during the party,” said Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson.

“That single decision altered the course of an immeasurable number of lives.”

“Our hearts ache for the Gleason family and an entire community who is still in mourning,” Adkinson said. “Let this be a lesson to all of us of the profound losses we face at the hands of drugs and addiction.”

In his victim’s impact statement, Gleason’s father, Bob Gleason, said the pain was unimaginable.

“Mr. Nabors’ actions took Tom’s life and in doing so, tattooed an indelible sadness on the hearts of myself, my wife, our daughter, and the more than 500 people who attended Tom’s funeral,” Gleason said.

The underlying cause of Gleason’s death “was a lethal dose of fentanyl which was found in narcotics directly provided” by Nabors, the sheriff’s office said.

Bob Gleason previously spoke with AL.com about the events he said took his son’s life in hopes that others will learn from Tom’s death.

Tom Gleason, who was from Connecticut, jumped into a whole different world when he chose to attend the University of Alabama, his father said.

He joined Phi Delt fraternity and met the friends with whom he attended the bachelor party. Tom Gleason was set to be the groom’s best man, and the group – mostly from Georgia and Alabama – settled in for a weekend of fun in the sun.

Bob Gleason said his son hadn’t had a drink in 10 months prior to the trip. He had a great job and was succeeding in life.

“They all were,’’ he said of the group on the trip. “These guys were making it in the world.”

One of the men on the trip brought out some cocaine. “They all used it, and it was gone,’’ Bob Gleason said.

Later that night, the party continued at their rental house on Sand Dunes Road. There were drinks, and there were strippers – nothing unusual for a bachelor party.

According to Bob Gleason, Nabors went out to his car and returned with a cigar box containing illicit drugs. He said Nabors snorted a line of the drug, and then others did as well.

Tom Gleason immediately collapsed.

First responders arrived and began to give the younger Gleason CPR and administered an AED. While doing so, three more men collapsed and became unresponsive.

All four were transported to Sacred Heart hospital in Pensacola.

Tom Gleason’s family rushed from Connecticut to the Florida hospital.

“By the time we got to Charlotte (for a layover), the doctor was like, ‘Do you want us to keep him alive?’ That’s how it was,’’ Bob Gleason said.

They arrived to find their son on a ventilator, and eventually made the decision to take him off life support.

Tom’s Gleason’s three friends spent several days in ICU.

The groom, whose engagement was called off immediately after the ill-fated bachelor trip, did not snort the drug and was not among those hospitalized, the elder Gleason said.

Bob Gleason said at first thought the guys had just ended up with a bad batch of drugs. But he said he believes Nabors knew he was giving his friends fentanyl – which law enforcement says takes only a very small amount to kill.

“When the toxicology came back, Tom wasn’t even drunk. He had his wits about him and so did everybody else,’’ he said. “But the fentanyl level was of the charts.”

“It wasn’t like these guys went down the street and found a dealer. They trust him because he was their fraternity brother,’’ Bob Gleason said. “They got it from a trusted friend, and this is what happened.”

Bob Gleason said he knew little about fentanyl before his son’s death and has spoken about it since then to help educate others.

“I didn’t know anybody who had tried it and Tom didn’t know anybody who had tried it,’’ he said. “It was something that wasn’t in his sphere.”