A Suffolk man was sentenced Thursday to serve six years in prison for selling prescription drugs out of his house on Linden Avenue.

William Wallace Colby, 47 at the time of his arrest in October 2007, was sentenced to 28 years, with 22 suspended, for three felony counts of distribution of drugs. He also was sentenced to a year, with all of it suspended, for a misdemeanor count of maintaining a common nuisance.

Upon his release, he will be required to be on supervised probation for an indefinite period of time, and he must complete drug and alcohol counseling and screenings.

Police raided the house at 107 Linden Avenue on Oct. 16, 2007, after finding a 26-year-old man dead in front of the house on two days before. Police had long suspected that prescription drugs were being sold from the house, a spokeswoman said at the time.

Investigators found 40 empty bottles of painkillers inside the house during the raid. At the end of the search, Neighborhood Development Services deemed the house unfit for habitation, and it was later seized by the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney as part of that office’s asset forfeiture program.