Man Sentenced to 30 Months in Connection to Overdose Death of Michael K. Williams

Carlos Macci was sentenced on Tuesday to 30 months in prison in connection with the death of The Wire actor Michael K. Williams.

Macci, 72, was part of a group of four men selling drugs out of a Williamsburg apartment and was with the man who sold the actor a bag of fentanyl-laced heroin on Sept. 5, 2021, according to the New York Times.

Williams died of “acute intoxication” from the effects of fentanyl, heroin, p-fluorofentanyl, and cocaine, at his Brooklyn home on Sept. 6. He was 54. The actor was best known for his role as the magnetic stickup man Omar Little on the HBO series The Wire.

Macci was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, with the first year served in an inpatient drug treatment facility. While federal prosecutors requested at least a four-year sentence, per the Times, friends of Williams wrote several letters asking Judge Abrams to sympathize with Macci.

“No possible good can come from incarcerating a (72-year-old) soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction and who has not engaged in street-level sales of narcotics with ambitions of success and profit but rather as someone caught up in the diaspora of addiction himself,” David Simon, co-creator of “The Wire,” wrote in a three-page letter.

Williams’s nephew, Dominic Dupont, also addressed Judge Abrams before she delivered her decision. “It weighs heavily on me to see someone be in the situation that he’s in,” said Dupont, adding that his uncle was an “amazing man” who “believed in an opportunity for people to get themselves right.”

Judge Abrams said that while she recognized Macci’s struggles, Williams’ death required accountability. “I have struggled with the decision I’ve had to make today,” the judge told Macci. “Selling drugs like heroin and fentanyl not only cost Mr. Williams his life, but it’s cost you your freedom.”

Macci was the first person sentenced among the three men who have pled guilty to possessing and selling narcotics. Irvin Cartagena, who sold Williams the fatal dose of fentanyl-laced heroin, faces up to 40 years and a mandatory minimum of five years in prison.