Are Penalties For Drug-Related Deaths Too Lenient? [POLL]

When is causing a death murder, when the "weapon" is heroin or another opiate controlled substance? A champion wrestler on Long Island overdosed on heroin in 2016. His dealer, who had almost caused another death in 2015, pleaded guilty June 18 to distributing the drug that caused the death.

Richard Jacobillis, 24, agreed to a sentence of 16 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, in the death of Nicholas Weber, 20, of Kings Park, Suffolk County, and for almost causing the death of Frances Theiling, who was 18 at the time.

Jacobellis originally faced multiple charges of distributing and conspiracy to distributing heroin, with a potential sentence of 20 years to life.

In April, police arrested a New Jersey man who was accused of selling heroin to a 30-year-old Orange County man who died of an overdose.

Patrick Shevlin, 28, of Montague, NJ was charged with third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and other criminal possession felonies.

Also in April, four Dutchess County residents were arrested after an investigation into two drug overdoses, one of which was a fatality.

The charges for the group ranged from felony criminal possession of a controlled substance to misdemeanor criminal possession.

There are no specific laws in New York State dealing with drug-induced homicides. However, prosecutors can use the felony charges of criminally negligent homicide, with a potential punishment of up to four years, or second-degree manslaughter, when the accused recklessly caused the death of another person. That potentially carries a sentence of 3-1/2 to 15 years.

Those aren’t used very often by prosecutors, though. While one Richmond County DA, according to a 2017 New York Times article, has used the harsher laws in 240 overdose cases, it’s not an easy process.

Besides tying medical evidence about the drugs to the fatality, the prosecutors have to convince a judge or a jury that the dealer knew the risks of the drugs he was providing and should be thought of responsible for the death of someone who takes drugs knowing they are dangerous.

The first time in New York that someone was accused of and pleaded guilty to manslaughter for selling drugs that resulted in a fatal overdose was in Nov. 2017.

James Fava sold fentanyl to Bryan Gallagher, 27, of Oakdale, Suffolk County, on July 17, 2016. One day later, Gallagher was found dead at his home. A needle and spoon were next to his body.

Prosecutors said text messages and other communications revealed that Gallagher had bought what he thought was heroin from Fava numerous times between the end of June 2016 and the day he was found dead.

Fava was sentenced to four to six years in prison in Feb. 2018, Newsday reported.

State Sen. George A. Amedore Jr., R-46th District, which covers portions of Ulster, Schenectady and Albany counties and all of Montgomery and Greene counties, sponsored S2761. That bill established the crime of homicide by sale of an opiate controlled substance.

In the recently ended legislative session in Albany, the bill passed the Senate in March but went no further. Previous legislative sessions have produced the same results, with similar bills languishing.

The bill was named Laree’s Law, after Laree Raffell Lincoln, a Colonie, Albany County, teenager who died of a heroin overdose in 2013.

When the bill passed the Senate, Amedore said it would have given law enforcement officials the ability to charge a drug dealer with homicide if a person ODs on heroin or an opiate-controlled substance sold to them by that dealer.

The potential penalty was 15 to 25 years in prison.

“Big business drug dealers continue to look for ways to make their product stronger and make themselves a bigger profit, and all the while, overdose deaths continue to rise,” Amedore said. “They will continue to prey on our most vulnerable until there is a punishment that properly fits the crime.”

Are drug dealers who supply drugs to people who overdose and possible die being prosecuted enough? Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.

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