Nassau Man Supplied Heroin In 2 Overdose Deaths: DA

GREAT NECK, NY — A Great Neck man has been indicted after prosecutors said he supplied heroin that led to two overdose deaths months apart, including that of his girlfriend, who was found dead beside him foaming at the mouth.

Justin Lum, 30, of Forest Row is also charged with unlawfully selling a controlled substance and is expected back in court Dec. 11, Queens prosecutors announced Thursday afternoon. If convicted, he faces up to 126 years in prison.

In April 2017, Lum gave heroin to his girlfriend, Patricia Collado, 28, of Brooklyn at a College Point movie theater, prosecutors said. The two snorted lines of heroin off a cellphone while watching a film, then later left the area and used more of Lum's heroin inside a parked car. When Collado stopped talking and passed out, Lum pulled her out of the car at an intersection. Emergency responders gave her an overdose reversal drug and rushed her to a hospital.

Lum stayed by her bedside at the hospital until she was released, John Ryan, the acting Queens district attorney said in a news release, and the couple went to his grandfather's home in Flushing. There, they snorted more of Lum's heroin, causing Collado to go into cardiac arrest. This time, Lum didn't call for help, and instead tried to stabilize her. He told authorities he "didn’t want to call the ambulance again," prosecutors said.

As Collado foamed at the mouth for about an hour, Lum took more drugs and fell asleep. The next morning, he found her unconscious and bubbling from her mouth. At that point, he called 911 and tried to revive her with CPR using a dispatcher's instructions. But by the time emergency medical technicians arrived, she was dead. An autopsy determined Collado died of acute intoxication stemming from the combined effects of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.

Less than a year later, while at Lum's home in March 2018, Lum gave heroin to Calvin Brown, 24, of Queens. Brown took the drugs and immediately suffered a medical emergency, prosecutors said. During that overdose, Lum called 911 and gave Brown CPR until first responders arrived. Brown survived the overdose after being rushed to a hospital for treatment.

Eight days after the overdose, Brown — who had been released from the hospital three days earlier — returned to Lum's home and received more heroin from Lum, prosecutors said. Lum said Brown needed the drugs badly. The next day, Brown's mother found him dead in his bedroom. His lifeless body was seated in a chair and his head was slumped onto a desk. An autopsy determined Brown died of acute intoxication from the combined effects of heroin, alprazolam, diazepam and phenobarbital.

Following the first overdose death, investigators found recorded conversations between Lum and another individual whom he was selling drugs to, prosecutors said. In April 2018, Lum told telling the unnamed person that should he die, he'd "be technically my third body."

"I woke up next to my ex-girlfriend, like OD’d," Lum is accused of saying. "The thing is, I saved her the night before."

Lum also acknowledged he "saved" another person too, prosecutors said.

"This other kid I saved too," Lum is accused of saying. "Just like 3 weeks ago...He just sniffed a line and then passed out. I did the chest compressions."

Lum went on to say he couldn't be prosecuted under so-called good Samaritan laws.

"The defendant in this case is accused of knowingly supplying drugs to both victims, even though, he knew his girlfriend and the acquaintance had nearly died as a result of earlier overdoses — in one instance the non-fatal overdose was less than 24 hours before the victim’s death," said Ryan. "The defendant’s alleged actions weren’t just intolerable and unconscionable, but they were also criminal."

Ryan said heroin has made an unwelcome comeback in Queens, as well as the rest of the state and nation. This has led to overdose deaths far outpacing homicides in the last few years.

"These are individuals who have become addicted to opioids and when heroin is laced with fentanyl there is an added risk since the synthetic opioid can be more than 50 times more potent than heroin," said Ryan. "The dealers who profit from distributing these drugs bear responsibility when their clients die."