Amid
SDNY Fentanyl
Daycare Case
Matrisciani
Overdose Death
Triggers
Letter from
Father
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Feb 2 –
Amid fentanyl deaths, beyond
Chinese precursors, US
Attorney Damian Williams on
Wednesday said "we are also
focused on addressing the
devastation fentanyl brings to
everyday people here in this
District."
In a
sit-down session with the
press, he added that in 2024
"every overdose will be
treated as a crime scene."
He cited
"a heartbreaking case
involving the overdose death
of a baby at a daycare center
in the Bronx."
Inner City
Press is covering that 2023
case - but also a lower
profile one, in which two
defendants who sold deadly
fentanyl to Christopher
Matrisciani was allowed to
plead down to crack
sale.Andrew Affredou was
arrested in connection with
the overdose of Christopher
Matrisciani on July 2, 2019 in
a hotel room in
Manhattan.
On
September 29, 2023, Affredou
came without notice before
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang
to plead guilty to a lesser
included offense, crack
dealing. Inner City Press was
there, the only media in the
SDNY Mag court.
Affredou,
who had faced trial, got a
plea deal for 8 to 14 months,
no appeal if below 27 months.
He took it. The sentencing is
set for February 5, 2024 at 11
am.
On January 9,
2024 Christopher
Mastrisciani's mother Sandra
wrote to Judge Broderick,
through Williams' US
Attorney's Office and their
active victims' unit, about
Affredou, and his co-defendant
George Sewell, set to be
sentenced on January 11,
asking for the maximum
sentence. She described her
son, who began addicted while
recovering from a crushed
ankle, was assigned to a badly
run halfway house in Bushwick
and was attending Berkley
College. She attached
photographs.
On January 26,
for his February 4 sentencing,
Affredou's Federal Defender
asked for time served.
On February 2,
Matrisciani's father wrote in
"these boys knew that what
they were peddling was a very
dangerous substance...They
need to be punished."
These are
heartbreaking cases, and Inner
City Press will continue to
report on them.
This case
is US v. Affredou, et al.,
22-cr-238 (Broderick)
***
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