Riverhead drug dealer pleads guilty to manslaughter, heroin sale in fatal overdose

A Riverhead man pleaded guilty to manslaughter and narcotics sale charges in Suffolk County Criminal Court last week.

John Brophy, 49, who with LaShawn Lawrence, 35, of Greenport, was accused of dealing heroin cut with fentanyl that caused the overdose death of a man in Riverhead last September, pleaded guilty to criminal sale of a narcotic drug, a Class B felony, and second-degree manslaughter, a Class C felony.

Brophy entered the plea Aug. 30 before Suffolk County Criminal Court Judge Anthony Senft. Brophy, who is being held in lieu of $125,000 bail, is due in court for sentencing on Oct. 3.

Lawrence is currently on trial on second-degree manslaughter and conspiracy charges, before Senft, according to online court records.

A third codefendant, Bryan Hale, 52, of Flanders, pleaded guilty on Aug. 9 to one count of attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree (narcotic drug), a class C felony. Hale was accused of allowing Lawrence and Brophy to sell drugs out of his auto repair shop at 500 Lincoln Street, in Riverhead. He is free on a $200,000 bond and is due in court for sentencing on Oct. 18.

District Attorney Timothy Sini said Brophy and Lawrence were aware of the lethal mix of the drugs they were selling, having had conversations via text messages about the potency of the heroin/fentanyl mix, which led to two overdoses before the fatal overdose that killed 50-year old Lawrence Yaccarino at a Sweezy Avenue home last Sept. 19. The text messages recovered from Brophy’s cell phone, confiscated by East End Drug Task Force investigators, reveal Brophy recounting to Lawrence how he having to administer Narcan to revive a customer.

“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 at a press conference in March, announcing the trio’s indictments. “He watched a customer die in front of him and administered Narcan to bring him back,” Sini 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.