A man pled guilty in court to distributing the fentanyl-laced opium that caused Michael K. Williams’ death in 2021. Irvin Cartagena, also known as Green Eyes, sold drugs “in broad daylight in New York City, feeding addiction and causing tragedy,” according to the attorney Damien Williams.
“He administered the fatal dose that killed Michael K. Williams,” the attorney told a federal courtroom in Manhattan.
The American actor perished in 2021 at age 54. The cause of his death was later determined to be an accidental narcotic overdose.
Documents indicate that on or around September 5, 2021, members of the drug trafficking organization sold Michael K. Williams heroin tainted with fentanyl and a fentanyl analog, with Cartagena executing the hand-to-hand transaction.
Cartagena and his co-conspirators “continued to sell fentanyl-laced heroin in broad daylight among residential apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan” despite knowing that Williams died after purchasing the product, the court was told.
Cartagena, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess fentanyl analog, fentanyl, and heroin with the intent to distribute. As part of his guilty plea, the defendant stated that his actions “led to Michael K. Williams’ death.”
According to court documents, this entails a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of forty years in prison.
Michael K. Williams, an attorney, stated,
“This office and our law enforcement partners will continue to hold accountable those who peddle this poison, exploit addiction, and cause pointless death in our community.”
Williams had discussed his substance use in the past. Spike Lee, Viola Davis, and Stephen King, who described Williams as “fantastically talented,” were among the many celebrities who expressed their sorrow and paid tribute upon hearing of his passing.
The HBO television network, which broadcast 60 episodes of The Wire from 2002 to 2008, expressed “devastation” at the news.
Michael K. Williams complex portrayal of Omar Little, a homosexual, shotgun-wielding drug dealer thief, contributed to The Wire’s game-changing depiction of life in the Baltimore projects.
Omar’s exchanges with Wendell Pierce’s detective Bunk, a black schoolmate who reminded him of the various paths life afforded them, exemplified the duality of a black experience that had never before been depicted on screen with such candor.
Years before Michael K. William’s demise, Pierce said that his co-star’s performance gave voice and flesh to characters “that most people would never have given the same humanity to… opening a window to a world of men we pass by or don’t know about.”
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