The elderly drug dealer who was arrested in connection to the death of The Wire actor Michael K. Williams was sentenced to two and half years in prison on Tuesday.
A judge sentenced Carlos Macci, 72, to 30 months in prison in addition to three years of supervised release. Per NBC News, for the first year he’ll attend an inpatient drug treatment facility.
Macci’s sentence comes after The Wire creator David Simon submitted a plea letter asking for leniency following the maximum 20-year sentence the drug dealer faced.
Federal prosecutors requested the judge give Macci at least four years inside to “reflect the seriousness of the offense” and “deter future criminal conduct of this defendant and others who could sell deadly narcotics in the community.”
Macci pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing narcotics in April.
Simon’s letter claimed Williams wouldn’t have wanted Macci to receive a heavy sentence because no one bears fuller responsibility for the crime than the actor. He also wrote that Macci was a victim of addiction, much like Williams, who was seen on security footage purchasing the drugs in Brooklyn with Macci present at the scene.
“What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy,” Simon, 63, wrote. “But I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty: First, that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened.”
He continued, “No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction.”
Carlos Macci was one of four men arrested on drug trafficking charges regarding Michael K. Williams’ death. The 54-year-old passed in September 2021 after taking heroin laced with fentanyl he purchased from Macci’s Brooklyn crew. Prosecutors claimed Macci and the three other defendants kept selling heroin mixed with fentanyl after Williams succumbed to a fatal overdose.
