The second of two men charged with distributing the heroin and fentanyl that caused the death in February of the New York transgender activist Cecilia Gentili has pleaded guilty, authorities announced on Monday.
Gentili, 52, died from fentanyl-laced heroin that authorities say she received from Michael Kuilan, 44, and Antonio Venti, 52, who in March were charged with distributing the narcotics.
Kuilan on Monday pleaded guilty to possession as well as possession with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl, the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York said. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing a gun despite an earlier conviction that prohibited him from legally doing so.
The plea from Kuilan came after Venti in July acknowledged he was guilty of distribution and possession with the intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl.
In a statement, the eastern district of New York’s US attorney Breon Peace said both Kuilan and Venti have now “admitted their guilt in selling the lethal drugs that have caused this heartbreaking death”.
Heroin and fentanyl have “caused so much pain throughout our community”, Peace continued. “I hope this case will bring a sense of closure to Gentili’s family and serve as a warning that this office will be relentless in holding fentanyl dealers accountable.”
Prosecutors say that Gentili was found dead in her bedroom in Brooklyn on 6 February. Her death, authorities say, resulted from the combined effect of controlled substances including fentanyl, xylazine, cocaine and heroin.
Peace’s office said that evidence such as text messages and cell site data showed that Venti sold the fentanyl and heroin mixture to Gentili on 5 February. And Kuilan supplied Venti with those lethal narcotics, according to Peace’s office.
The plea agreements for Kuilan and Venti required both to agree that they caused Gentili’s death, authorities said.
Law enforcement also searched an apartment in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that belonged to Kuilan. Investigators found hundreds of baggies of fentanyl as well as a handgun and ammunition, according to a news release on Monday of the guilty plea.
Fentanyl is the current leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 to 45, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Gentili, who was born in Argentina and moved to the US in 2000, was a community activist, leader and actor known for her advocacy on behalf of sex workers. She was the author of Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist and also starred in the television show Pose.
Gentili’s funeral, which more than 1,000 people reportedly attended, was held at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in mid-February.
The funeral service received backlash from conservative media and groups, such as the group CatholicVote, which called the funeral “unbelievable and sick” and “a mockery of the Christian faith”.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York City also condemned the service and said that some mourners behaved scandalously during the service.
The effort by law enforcement to prosecute Kuilan and Venti is part of a broader and controversial effort to hold drug suppliers accountable for overdose deaths in which the victim had voluntarily taken illegal drugs.
Last year, Irvin Cartagena was sentenced 10 years in prison after the admitted dealer supplied The Wire actor Michael K Williams with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death in his Brooklyn penthouse apartment in September 2021.
Williams portrayed Omar Little, the rogue robber of drug dealers, in the HBO series. Williams’s credits also included Boardwalk Empire, another HBO series.
In a letter to the court before Cartagena’s co-defendant Carlos Macci was sentenced to 30 months in prison, The Wire creator David Simon asked the judge for leniency. Simon said that Williams saw his drug addiction as his own responsibility.
“It was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened,” Simon wrote in the letter. “No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction.”
