Carlos Macci, the 72-year-old drug dealer who sold the lethal heroin laced with fentanyl to Michael K. Williams, has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams rendered the sentence in a New York City courthouse on Tuesday. Macci was caught on surveillance video selling drugs to the late actor in 2021.
"I would like to say, your honor, I'm sorry for what has happened," he said in court. Despite Macci's efforts to express his remorse, the judge explained that “while she sympathized with Mr. Macci’s troubles, the deadly toll of fentanyl and his decision to keep selling heroin laced with it even after Mr. Williams died demanded accountability.”
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Michael K. Williams With David Simon
Among the voices to have spoken out in favor of leniency for Macci is David Simon, who created HBO's hit series, The Wire, in which Williams starred. On Wednesday, Simon responded to a headline from the Daily Mail suggesting that he was "demanding" to "begging" for leniency for Macci. “I wrote a letter, at the request, of a defense attorney, seeking leniency for this man,” Simon replied on Twitter. “I know — not only from direct conversations with my late friend but from his own filmed work against mass incarceration and the drug war — it was the right thing to do. Fuck their verbs … Also — and not to credit my letter over other advocacy as I don’t know the net effect — this judge’s sentence comes not ‘despite’ the appeal; it is in fact far more lenient than sentencing guidelines or even prosecutorial request.”
Simon added: “A 71-year-old addict on a corner touting vials or bags with little or no involvement in the chemical composition of such is a ‘supplier.’ Ok, Pete. Lock him up and every sad soul who wants that product finds it regardless today. The drug war doesn’t fucking work.”
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