Elderly man sentenced to more than 2 years in prison in connection to Michael K. Williams' death
Carlos Macci, one of the four men charged in connection with The Wire star Michael K. Williams' 2021 overdose death, has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to possess and distribute narcotics.
Macci's sentence comes after Williams' nephew Dominic Dupont pleaded for compassion for the 72-year-old defendant at the sentencing, according to the AP.
Per the report, Dupont told U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, "It weighs heavy on me to see someone be in a situation he's in. I understand what it is to be system impacted." Previously, The Wire creator David Simon had also encouraged mercy for Macci, who is a drug addict himself, in a three-page letter to the judge.
"What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy," Simon wrote. "But 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." And second, "No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction" and sold drugs not for profit "but rather as someone caught up in the diaspora of addiction himself."
Per the AP, at the sentencing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams told Macci that selling heroin and fentanyl "not only cost Mr. Williams his life, but it's costing your freedom." Still, the 30-month sentence was a far cry from the 48 months the prosecution sought or the nearly 20 years he could have faced under federal sentencing guidelines.
Williams — whose long list of screen credits also included the TV series Boardwalk Empire and Lovecraft Country as well as films such as Inherent Vice, Gone Baby Gone, 12 Years a Slave, and more — was found dead in his Brooklyn penthouse apartment in September 2021 of an accidental overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin.
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