41°
Daquan Booker, age 34, of Smithtown, was arraigned on multiple drug charges in Nassau County Court on Tuesday, Oct. 15, following the death of Garden City High School senior Grace Wrightington.
Prosecutors said Booker met with the teen on at least two occasions in July 2023 and sold her purported oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl. The synthetic opioid – more than 100 times stronger than morphine – has contributed to a growing number of overdose deaths across the country in recent years.
Wrightington’s parents called 911 on July 4, 2023, saying their daughter was dead in her bedroom. An autopsy determined she died from acute fentanyl intoxication.
Garden City Police found two blue pills marked “MH30” in the teen’s purse that ultimately tested positive for fentanyl. Investigators also recovered a selfie video on her phone, taken 12 hours before death, in which she discussed buying pills on the street that she believed contained fentanyl and expressed fears she was overdosing.
Booker previously pleaded guilty to drug possession and sale charges in February after he sold pressed fentanyl pills to undercover officers with the Suffolk County Police Department in July 2023.
As part of a plea deal, he was allowed to participate in the Judicial Diversion Program, reserved for defendants whose crimes are found to be related to their substance abuse or addiction.
Booker was arrested Friday, Oct. 11, while attempting to visit an inmate at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead. In Nassau County Court Tuesday, he was indicted on the following counts:
- Two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance
- Two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance
Booker pleaded not guilty and was released with an electronic monitoring device.
On Wednesday, Oct. 16, he was rearrested and jailed without bail in Suffolk County in connection with a pending reckless driving and assault case there.
Booker was notably not charged with causing Wrightington's death. Under current law, a person who provides an illicit drug that results in death can typically only be charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance, a non-violent felony.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly called that a "deficiency in New York State law."
“Hundreds of people die every year across Long Island from overdose. The Wrightington family is not the first to go through the anguish of losing a child and finding out the person responsible for selling the fatal drugs cannot be held accountable for their death," Donnelly said.
"If our laws do not change, they sadly will not be the last.”
State lawmakers are considering a bill that would make selling, delivering, or otherwise administering a controlled substance eligible for manslaughter charges if someone later dies from an overdose.
The bill would be named “Chelsey’s Law,” in honor of Chelsey Murray, a 31-year-old Long Island resident from Suffolk County who died from a fentanyl overdose in August 2022.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Riverhead and receive free news updates.
