Putnam man sentenced to 9 years in prison for dealing drugs that led to fatal overdose

A Putnam County drug dealer was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in state prison for selling a dangerous combination of heroin and fentanyl on two occasions, leading to one fatal overdose.

Putnam County District Attorney Robert V. Tendy said William E. Mancusi III, 47, of Kent, was previously found guilty by a jury on January 12 of criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. He was convicted of the charges after a combination he sold led to a fatal overdose in 2021.

Tendy said New York State Police investigators responded to the scene of a fatal overdose in the town of Southeast on Nov. 12 and found that the drugs used had allegedly come from Mancusi.

Mancusi provided a confidential informant with a mix of drugs during an operation in the investigation. Tendy said Mancusi was heard on audio recordings bragging about the drugs and saying they were some the "strongest stuff" he had in over a year and told the confidential informant to be careful while using them.

NYSP forensic scientist Jenna Snow identified the cocktail as a very potent combination of heroin, fentanyl and xylazine.

“The defendant’s callous disregard for the potential life ending substances he was pushing is difficult to fathom,” Tendy said in a news release. “How he could put so many people in danger is beyond me.”

Mancusi was remanded to Putnam County Correctional facility after the jury conviction.

Tendy said Putnam County Court Justice Joseph Spofford rejected Mancusi's request for a drug treatment facility and agreed with the findings of the pre-sentence report, which said that he "has never expressed any remorse for his own actions and has repeatedly failed when given opportunities to seek rehabilitation for his own admitted addiction."

Spofford sentenced Mancusi to nine years in state prison as a second felony offender after he was previously convicted by a Putnam County jury of vehicular manslaughter and driving while ability impaired in 2008 when he struck and killed a bicyclist in Dutchess County.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Putnam NY man sentenced to prison for selling drugs that led to death