An elderly man has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in connection with the 2021 death of acclaimed actor Michael K. Williams.
Carlos Macci was part of a four-person team that distributed drugs throughout Brooklyn and sold Williams the fentanyl-laced heroin that took his life. Although Macci was not accused of directly selling the drugs to Williams, he was charged for his role. Another member of the team was caught on surveillance making the transaction the day before the 54-year-old Williams overdosed.
Macci pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess and distribute narcotics. He faced a minimum sentence of five years and as many as 20 years, but U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams agreed to depart from sentencing guidelines after hearing and reading pleas for leniency from Williams’ family and friends.
“It weighs heavy on me to see someone be in a situation he’s in,” the actor’s nephew Dominic Dupont told the court. “I understand what it is to be system impacted.”
Dupont is also a public speaker, actor and former inmate who uses his experience with the system to inspire those in our communities to learn from his mistakes and stay out of the system altogether.
Cries for compassion also came from writer and producer David Simon, creator of award-winning TV series “The Wire,” on which Williams played one of his most recognized characters, Omar Little.
Simon and Williams had known each other since the latter was cast in 2002, and Simon explained in a three-page letter to the judge that his friend was opposed to mass incarceration and the drug war and worked closely with many restorative justice groups, according to the AP.
“I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty,” the letter read. “First, that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened. And second, no possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction.”
In response to the sentencing, Simon told The Hollywood Reporter, “I know — not only from direct conversations with my late friend but from his own filmed work against mass incarceration and the drug war — it was the right thing to do.”
Macci’s co-conspirators in the case – Hector Robles, 57, Luis Cruz, 56, and Irving Cartagena, 39 – face as many as 40 years in prison. Cartagena, who made the direct sale to Williams, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs back in April. His sentence will be no shorter than five years.
