Dealer gets 10 years in prison in death of actor Michael K. Williams

NEW YORK — A New York Metropolis drug seller was sentenced Friday to 10 years in jail for offering “The Wire” actor Michael Ok. Williams with fentanyl-laced heroin, inflicting his loss of life.

Irvin Cartagena, 40, of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by U.S. District Choose Ronnie Abrams. Cartagena had pleaded responsible in April to conspiring to distribute medication.

Williams overdosed in his Brooklyn penthouse house in September 2021. He died hours after authorities stated he purchased the heroin from Cartagena on a sidewalk in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood 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. Along with his work on the critically acclaimed drama, Williams additionally starred in movies and different TV sequence reminiscent of “Boardwalk Empire.”

Cartagena confronted a compulsory minimal of 5 years in jail and will have confronted as much as 40 years behind bars.

“I’m very sorry for my actions,” he stated earlier than the sentence was introduced. “After we offered the medication, we by no means supposed for anybody to lose their life.”

Abrams famous that those that knew Cartagena stated that he was “useful and humble and arduous working” when he was not utilizing medication himself.

“I am hopeful that with remedy, … it’ll provide help to transfer ahead on a extra productive and law-abiding path,” the choose stated.

In an announcement, U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams famous that those that participated within the sale of medicine to Williams already knew that another person had died from medication they had been peddling.

Prosecutors stated Cartagena and others continued to promote fentanyl-laced heroin in Manhattan and Brooklyn even after Williams died, though Cartagena ultimately fled to Puerto Rico, the place he was arrested in February 2022.

In a protection submission previous to sentencing, Cartagena’s lawyer, Sean Maher, stated his consumer was paid for his road gross sales in heroin to help his personal use.

“In a tragic immediate, Mr. Cartagena was the one who handed the small packet of medicine to Mr. Williams — it simply might have been any of the opposite males who had been there or within the neighborhood promoting the identical medication,” Maher wrote. “Sentencing Mr. Cartagena to double digits of jail time is not going to carry again the gorgeous 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 helpful a 20-year time period after citing Cartagena’s 14 prior convictions for drug-related crimes, together with housebreaking, theft and jail escape.

Abrams, although, stated the suggestions had been “just too excessive.”

“This sentence, whereas extreme, is adequate however not better than obligatory,” she stated.