Enfield man who sold fentanyl in OD death gets 2 years | Crime & Courts

But the sentence was more severe than either side in the case had recommended.

When Feliciano entered his plea bargain in February, the two sides calculated the sentence range recommended by the guidelines at 10 to 16 months. Although that was later found to be incorrect, a federal appeals court decision allows trial judges to depart from the true guideline range to give effect to a plea agreement negotiated in good faith by the parties.

Both sides asked Underhill to do that in Feliciano’s case. Assistant Federal Defender Moira L. Buckley sought a 10-month sentence and prosecutor Jocelyn Courtney Kaoutzanis argued for 16 months.

In his plea agreement, Feliciano waived his right to appeal any sentence up to 16 months. The judge’s imposition of a sentence 50 percent greater than that means that Feliciano will have the right to appeal the sentence.

The overdose victim, a 24-year-old man, was found on the morning of Oct. 8, 2017, in his basement bedroom in his father’s Enfield home. Police found a white powdery substance on his sweatpants and drug paraphernalia in the area, including “uncapped needles.”

A state medical examiner concluded that he died of “multidrug toxicity, including fentanyl and alprazolam,” a prescription drug used to treat anxiety and panic disorders.

The victim was a recovering heroin addict and had been clean for about six months, his father told police. Authorities found corroboration for that statement in Facebook messages between the victim and Feliciano, which included apparent discussions of drug purchases as early as February 2017, followed by months of no communication, according to an affidavit by Special Agent Jay M. Salvatore of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In a Facebook Messenger conversation on June 23 and 24, 2017, Feliciano appeared to offer to sell drugs to the victim, who replied, “I don’t do dope no more,” according to the agent.

But their communication resumed on Oct. 7, 2017, with a discussion of a drug purchase in which Feliciano warned the victim, “U gotta be really careful” and “u might OD.”

“The text messages show that Feliciano was aware of the potency of the narcotics that he was selling because of the numerous references to ‘fire’ throughout the messages,” the prosecutor wrote in her sentencing memorandum.

The defense lawyer’s sentencing memo drew a picture of Feliciano’s “chaotic and tragic” upbringing in a family affected by his mother’s mental illness and drug use.

During the first seven years of his life, Feliciano lived in foster homes, then with his grandmother, before being returned to his mother in 1997, Buckley wrote.

“They lived in abject poverty — barely surviving on disability checks, state aid, and their mother’s boyfriend’s drug dealing proceeds,” the defense lawyer continued. “Their basic needs (food and clothing) were not met and Mr. Feliciano would steal clothes from the Salvation Army bins, or shoes and clothes left poolside in the summer at the city pool. He would shoplift food from the grocery store so that he and his siblings could eat.”

Feliciano’s mother’s boyfriend would use the boy to help in drug dealing when he was only about 11 to avoid police detection, Buckley added. He began using marijuana and alcohol at age 13, and, by the time of his arrest, needed a bag or more of heroin to get out of bed in the morning, the defense lawyer wrote.