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James Tunstall, also known as “Math,” was sentenced on Thursday, July 20 to 30 years in prison for distributing heroin which led to the death of a 24-year-old Jericho man, the US District Attorney’s Eastern District of New York Office announced.
According to his trial, Tunstall, aged 48, sold both cocaine and heroin regularly to customers in Nassau County.
- Earlier Report: Drug Dealer Guilty In Man's Overdose Death In Jericho
When he would get caught, Tunstall would regularly feign an opioid addiction so that he could get out of jail time and instead be put in court-mandated rehabilitation programs.
At rehab, Tunstall would amass new clients to sell drugs to. He would even go as far as to provide his customers with his own clean urine that they could use to pass drug tests.
It was at one of these rehab facilities, in Mineola, where Tunstall met victim Sergio Niko Alvarez, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Tunstall would go on to sell Alvarez drugs at the facility itself.
On October 28, 2018, Jay Tenem (Tunstall’s co-defendant in the case) delivered heroin to Alvarez for Tunstall and brought the cash back to him.
The next morning, Alvarez’s mother found him dead of a heroin overdose.
In July of 2021, after his arrest, Tunstall pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to sell cocaine and heroin.
He was sentenced to 20 years for that charge.
Tunstall’s Thursday, July 20 sentence of 30 years in connection with Alvarez’s death will be served concurrently with his previous sentence, the Attorney’s Office reported.
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