DA Sini brings manslaughter charges in overdose death of Riverhead man

Three men accused of dealing heroin cut with fentanyl are facing multiple narcotics charges, with two of them charged with manslaughter in the overdose death of a Riverhead man in September.

John Brophy, 49, of Riverhead and LaShawn Lawrence, 35, of Greenport knowingly sold a potent mixture of heroin and fentanyl to a Riverhead man who died of an overdose the next day, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini. Brophy is facing manslaughter and a slew of narcotics charges. Lawrence is facing manslaughter and conspiracy charges.

Bryan Hale, 52, of Flanders, allowed Brophy and Lawrence to sell drugs out of his auto repair shop at 500 Lincoln Street, Sini said. He is facing multiple felony drug possession and sale charges.

Sini said Brophy was aware of the lethal mix of the drugs he was selling because he had to use Narcan on one of his customers not long before the overdose death of Lawrence Yaccarino on Swezey Avenue Sept. 19.

East End Drug Task Force investigators confiscated Brophy’s cell phone when they executed a search warrant and recovered text messages between him and Lawrence discussing the potency of the heroin/fentanyl mix.

“I just narcained [sic] a guy twice at my house and I have another guy this afternoon that had problems from a little,” Brophy texted Lawrence on Sept. 13, five days before they sold the drug to Yaccarino, according to prosecutors.

“Think about that,” Sini said. “He watched a customer die in front of him and administered Narcan to bring him back,” he said.

“After these text messages, these criminals continued to sell their products in our community.”

Another customer of Lawrence had a nonfatal overdose prior to that, Sini said. One man was operating a vehicle on Main Street in Greenport when he overdosed and crashed into a parked car, the district attorney said. Southold Town Police officers administered Narcan and revived him, Sini said.

“If you are causing overdoses we are going to target you and hold you responsible for the death you have caused,” Sini said.

Drug dealers cut heroin with fentanyl because it’s cheaper and they can stretch the heroin supply and make more money, Sini said.

They know how dangerous it is, “but they don’t care,” the DA said.

“They are playing Russian Roulette with other people’s lives.”

Sini issued a call for legislative reform. “New York State doesn’t have a law specifically holding drug dealers responsible for deaths,” he said. Prosecutors have to establish that they recklessly caused a person’s death in order to convict them of manslaughter, the DA said.

Sini also called for legislation to reduce the controlled substance quantities needed for prosecutors to be able to charge dealers with first-degree offenses. The drugs are more potent today, he said.

“We need a death by dealer statute.”

At a press conference held in the Riverhead county courthouse after their arraignments this morning, attended by chiefs of the East End police departments and other East End Drug Task Force representatives, the district attorney said Riverhead police played a key role in the investigation.

Task force investigators recognized that the overdoses in Riverhead and Greenport involved heroin packaging that was purple with a wax seal, which Sini called “unique.” Investigators traced the drugs to the dealers in question, he said.

Brophy, Lawrence and Hale were arraigned before Suffolk County Criminal Court Judge Anthony Senft this morning. Sini sat in the audience to watch the proceedings as Assistant District Attorney Tanya Rickoff, the lead prosecutor in the the case, handled the arraignments.

Lawrence, who has six prior felony convictions and at the time of his arrest was on parole after serving time in an upstate prison on a 2012 felony drug conviction. He was in custody on the parole violation and was ordered held on the parole warrant as well on $200,000 cash bail or $400,000 bond.

Brophy and Hale were not in custody prior to this morning’s arraignment. Both appeared in court to answer the charges and both were taken into custody at the conclusion of their arraignments. Brophy was held on $125,000 cash bail and $250,000 bond. Hale, who was already out on a $10,000 bond posted in connection with a separate pending weapons charge, had bail set at $100,000 cash and $200,000 bond. Like Lawrence, both men have significant criminal histories.

Hale was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in 1997 in the death of a female swimmer struck by a boat Hale was operating while impaired. In 2000 he was convicted on a felony drug charge and served additional time in a state penitentiary. He has three additional misdemeanor convictions, Rickoff said. Hale was charged in 2012 following a previous East End Drug Task Force investigation, which led to his arrest on criminal sale of a controlled substance from his auto repair shop on Lincoln Street.

Brophy and Lawrence face 7 1/2 to 15 years if convicted on the top charges because they are prior felons, Sini said.

Hale faces a maximum sentence of nine years.

All three are due back in court on March 29.