Irvin Cartagena, 40, of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by U.S. District Choose Ronnie Abrams. Cartagena had pleaded responsible in April to conspiring to distribute medicine.

Williams overdosed in his Brooklyn penthouse condominium in September 2021. He died hours after authorities Mentioned he purchased the heroin from Cartagena on a sidewalk in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in a deal recorded by a safety digicam.

Williams famously portrayed Omar Little, the rogue robber of drug sellers, in HBO’s “The Wire,” which ran from 2002 to 2008. Along with his work on the critically acclaimed drama, Williams additionally starred in movies and different TV collection equivalent to “Boardwalk Empire.”

Cartagena confronted a compulsory minimal of 5 years in jail and will have confronted as much as 40 years behind bars.

“I’m very sorry for my actions,” he mentioned earlier than the sentence was introduced. “After we offered the medicine, we by no means meant for anybody to lose their life.”

Abrams famous that those that knew Cartagena mentioned that he was “useful and humble and laborious working” when he was not utilizing medicine himself.

“I’m hopeful that with remedy, … it’s going to make it easier to transfer ahead on a extra productive and law-abiding path,” the choose mentioned.

In a press release, U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams famous that those that participated within the sale of medicine to Williams already knew that another person had died from medicine they have been peddling.

Prosecutors mentioned Cartagena and others continued to promote fentanyl-laced heroin in Manhattan and Brooklyn even after Williams died, though Cartagena finally fled to Puerto Rico, the place he was arrested in February 2022.

In a protection submission previous to sentencing, Cartagena’s lawyer, Sean Maher, mentioned his shopper was paid for his road gross sales in heroin to assist his personal use.

“In a tragic instantaneous, Mr. Cartagena was the one who handed the small packet of medicine to Mr. Williams — it simply might have been any of the opposite males who have been there or within the neighborhood promoting the identical medicine,” Maher wrote. “Sentencing Mr. Cartagena to double digits of jail time won’t convey again the attractive life that was misplaced.”

Prosecutors in a presentence submission had requested a sentence of not less than 12 years whereas the courtroom’s Probation Division had advisable a 20-year time period after citing Cartagena’s 14 prior convictions for drug-related crimes, together with housebreaking, theft and jail escape.

Abrams, although, mentioned the suggestions have been “just too excessive.”

“This sentence, whereas extreme, is ample however not higher than vital,” she mentioned.