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Mohegan Lake resident Perry Freeman has been charged with distributing fentanyl that resulted in the death of a victim, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Monday, Dec. 4.
According to federal officials, on Nov. 10, 2021, Freeman sold fentanyl to the victim. A short time after this, police responded to a burning car in a parking lot in Mohegan Lake, only a three-minute drive from Freeman's apartment building.
There, authorities found the victim inside of the burning Ford Focus with their foot on the gas pedal. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, the man was declared dead and pulled out of the wreck, officials said.
An investigation into the fire later determined that the car had gone up in flames after overheating as the result of the gas pedal being depressed for a long time while the vehicle had been in park. Investigators also determined that the victim had been passed out in the driver's seat with their foot on the pedal.
An autopsy of the victim performed by the Westchester County Medical Examiner’s Office eventually found that the man had lethal levels of both fentanyl and norfentanyl, a metabolite of fentanyl, in his blood. He was also found to have a darkening in his lungs as a result of smoke inhalation.
As a result of the autopsy, the victim's official cause of death was determined to be both acute fentanyl intoxication and accident, federal officials said.
According to US Attorney Damian Williams, Freeman knew the danger that his product could pose to people such as the victim.
"Freeman regularly sold fentanyl to a confidential informant and warned the informant to be careful with the drugs, indicating he knew how unsafe his product was," Williams said, adding, "This office will not rest until those who peddle this poison have been brought to justice.”
Freeman has been charged with:
- One count of fentanyl distribution resulting in death, which carries a minimum prison sentence of 20 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison;
- One count of illegally possessing ammunition as a convicted felon, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
The case is now being prosecuted by the US Attorney's Office's White Plains Division.
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