Man who sold Michael K Williams fentanyl-laced drugs that killed him sentenced to 10 years in prison
A New York Citydrug vendor was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for offering The Wire actor Michael K. Williams with fentanyl-laced heroin, inflicting his dying.
Irvin Cartagena, 40, of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by US District Decide Ronnie Abrams. Cartagena had pleaded responsible in April to conspiring to distribute drugs.
Williams overdosed in his Brooklyn penthouse residence in September 2021. He died hours after authorities stated he purchased the heroin from Cartagena on a sidewalk in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighbourhood in a deal recorded by a safety digicam.
Williams famously portrayed Omar Little, the rogue robber of drug sellers, in HBO’s The Wire, which ran from 2002 to 2008. As well as to his work on the critically acclaimed drama, Williams additionally starred in movies and different TV collection akin to Boardwalk Empire.
Cartagena confronted a compulsory minimal of 5 years in prison and will have confronted up to 40 years behind bars.
“I’m very sorry for my actions,” he stated earlier than the sentence was introduced. “Once we sold the drugs, we by no means meant for anybody to lose their life.”
Abrams famous that these who knew Cartagena stated that he was “useful and humble and onerous working” when he was not utilizing drugs himself.
(2021 Invision)
“I am hopeful that with therapy… it is going to allow you to transfer ahead on a extra productive and law-abiding path,” the choose stated.
In an announcement, US Lawyer Damian Williams famous that these who participated in the sale of drugs to Williams already knew that another person had died from drugs they had been peddling.
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Prosecutors stated Cartagena and others continued to promote fentanyl-laced heroin in Manhattan and Brooklyn even after Williams died, though Cartagena finally fled to Puerto Rico, the place he was arrested in February 2022.
In a defence submission prior to sentencing, Cartagena’s lawyer, Sean Maher, stated his consumer was paid for his road gross sales in heroin to assist his personal use.
“In a tragic prompt, Mr Cartagena was the one who handed the small packet of drugs to Mr Williams – it simply might have been any of the opposite males who had been there or in the neighborhood promoting the identical drugs,” Maher wrote. “Sentencing Mr Cartagena to double digits of prison time is not going to deliver again the attractive life that was misplaced.”
Prosecutors in a presentence submission had requested a sentence of at the least 12 years whereas the courtroom’s Probation Division had really useful a 20-year time period after citing Cartagena’s 14 prior convictions for drug-related crimes, together with housebreaking, theft and prison escape.
Abrams, although, stated the suggestions had been “just too excessive.”
“This sentence, whereas extreme, is adequate however not higher than mandatory,” she stated.
