Man Who Sold Michael K. Williams Drugs That Killed Him Is Sentenced

A man who sold a fatal dose of fentanyl-laced heroin to Michael K. Williams, the actor who rose to fame for his portrayal of a stickup man named Omar Little on the HBO series “The Wire,” was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison.

The man, Irvin Cartagena, was one of four men who were charged with running a drug trafficking operation out of an apartment building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn; all four pleaded guilty.

But it was Mr. Cartagena who sold Mr. Williams the drugs that killed him on Sept. 5, 2021. Mr. Williams, 54, met the men in front of the apartment building that day and Mr. Cartagena handed him the drugs, prosecutors said. Mr. Williams returned to his own apartment nearby and was found dead the following day. His death was ruled an accidental drug overdose weeks later.

On Friday, Mr. Cartagena, now 40, was led into the Federal District Court at 40 Centre Street dressed in a khaki jumpsuit, with his legs shackled together and his arms chained to his waist. Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Mr. Cartagena apologized for his role in Mr. Williams’s death.

“I am very sorry for my actions,” he said. “When we sold the drugs, we never intended for anyone to lose their life.”

In announcing her sentence, Judge Ronnie Abrams acknowledged that it could have been any of the other three men charged along with Mr. Cartagena who handed Mr. Williams the fatal drugs. However, she said, Mr. Cartagena knew the heroin was laced with fentanyl when he sold it, while Mr. Williams was unaware.

The harm from that sale was “very clear and very tragic,” she said.

The length of the sentence, she added, is intended to serve as a deterrent to both Mr. Cartagena, who has been convicted of drug charges in the past, and to others who sell fentanyl, which has led to many deaths across the country in recent years.

“It’s got to stop,” she said.

Mr. Cartagena, who is also known as “Green Eyes,” was first introduced to heroin when he was about 13 years old and living in Puerto Rico, where he grew up, his lawyer, Sean M. Maher, said in court. He was struggling with school and spending more and more time on the streets in order to avoid a tumultuous and violent family life, Mr. Maher said.

He quickly became hooked on the drug, and from then on his addiction grew “almost unabated,” according to court documents filed before the sentencing hearing.

In the filing, Mr. Maher argued that the men who sold Mr. Williams the drugs were not “cartel leaders, gang members or even bosses.” Rather, they were at the “absolute bottom of the rung in the narcotics trade,” he wrote.

The filing noted that Mr. Cartagena’s bosses paid him in heroin to “salve his own personal addiction,” as well as a few dollars per bag sold.

Prosecutors said Mr. Cartagena and the other men continued to sell fentanyl-laced heroin even after Mr. Williams’s death. A confidential informant and undercover officers bought drugs from the ring more than a dozen times.

One of Mr. Cartagena’s co-defendants, Carlos Macci, was sentenced last month to 30 months in prison. The other two men await sentencing hearings next month.

In the weeks before Mr. Macci’s sentencing, the judge received a letter from David Simon, a friend of Mr. Williams and the co-creator of “The Wire,” who asked the judge for leniency and to sentence Mr. Macci to time served, which would amount to about one and a half years.

Mr. Simon told the court that Mr. Williams saw his drug addiction as his own responsibility.

“I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty: first, that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened,” Mr. Simon wrote.

And second, he said: “No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction.”

Throughout the hearing on Friday, Mr. Cartagena listened intently to the proceedings through headphones. He nodded along and wiped his eyes as his attorney outlined his difficult childhood and his lifelong struggle with addiction.

But Mr. Cartagena cast his eyes down when Mr. Williams’s nephew, Dominic Dupont, took his place at a lectern to speak about his uncle’s impact on his family and his community, as well as the effects of his death.

“He was an individual that would take dirt and try to make diamonds out of it,” Mr. Dupont said. “That was his superpower.”

Mr. Dupont then directly addressed Mr. Cartagena, who looked up, and urged him to think about the legacy he wanted to leave behind for himself and for his family.

“I am looking at you because I understand that your grandmother and the people who care about you want better for you,” he told him.

After the hearing, Mr. Dupont said the sentence imposed would not bring Mr. Williams back and that communities were still “suffering” because of fentanyl.

His hope, he said, was that his uncle’s death, “as unfortunate as it was,” would be an opportunity to save lives.