Dealer linked to 2021 fentanyl deaths gets 25 years: Responsible for four deaths in one day

Marquis Douglas of Riverhead was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison for his role in the sale of fentanyl-laced cocaine that killed four East End residents — including a Shelter Islander — in one day in August 2021.

“The amount of drugs he’s distributed over his life is chilling,” said U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert, who signed off on an agreement between prosecutors and the defense for the 25-year sentence. But she said in court that she “has great difficulty because in some ways, this case warrants more. This is basically a sentence that’s at the very low bottom.”

Last fall, Mr. Douglas, 39, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and distribution of a controlled substance causing death. He admitted supplying a street-level drug dealer with the fentanyl-laced cocaine that killed Swainson Brown of Shelter Island who was a chef at The Pridwin, Matthew LaPiana of East Marion, Seth Tramontana of Greenport, and Seyed Navid Ahmadzadeh of Southold. Those four deaths were among six reported in Southold and Shelter Island towns across eight days in the summer of 2021.

A highly potent — and highly addictive — synthetic opioid, fentanyl has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be used for pain relief and as an anesthetic. Its illegal use can come in many forms, especially laced within other drugs, concocting a dangerous narcotic cocktail that often leads to overdoses and deaths.

According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 2023. According to the Suffolk County Medical Examiners Office, in the first four months of this year, 51 overdose deaths were recorded.

Mr. Douglas was described by prosecutors last month in a letter to the judge as “an experienced drug dealer with five prior state and/or federal drug felony convictions.” He was arrested in May 2022 while in possession of 105 grams of fentanyl and 135 grams of cocaine. He also has prior convictions that involve theft and burglary and “constant” felony-level narcotics conduct, according to the letter. Court records indicate that Mr. Douglas had been working to distribute drugs at least as far back as 2015.

Families of the victims were present at the sentencing. Beverly Samuels, mother of Swainson Brown, described her son as an “amazing chef and amazing person to so many.”

“I mourn each and every day the loss of my son,” Ms. Samuels added. “Today, you have the opportunity to make sure that no other family goes through what I have gone through for the last three years.”

Patricia LaPiana, mother of Matthew LaPiana, addressed the court. “The mental, emotional and stressful pain has been unbearable to this day,” she  said. “It’s an outrage that so many people in our small town of Greenport had to die.”

Mr. LaPiana’s sister, cousin and uncle were also in attendance.

Defense attorney Richard Langone told the court that Mr. Douglas is not “inherently evil” and is just a “victim of his own bad judgment.”

“In the two years I’ve represented him, he has cried to me real tears that he would never have done such a thing like mix fentanyl [into other narcotics],” Mr. Langone said.

Speaking through tears, Mr. Douglas addressed the victims’ families, saying that “the worst thing I ever did was touch fentanyl.”

“I’m not a stranger to the people who died,” he said. “I didn’t plot. I didn’t scheme to hurt anyone. I grew up in this culture. I didn’t want this.”

Turning to his son in the gallery, Mr. Douglas said, “Whatever you do, just say no to drugs, even marijuana.”

Mr. Douglas’ wife, Shiniqua Douglas of Texas, said after the hearing that she was “very unsatisfied” with the sentencing. “He did not orchestrate them to do this,” she said. “Men got weak, they got hungry, they got desperate so they started doing things on their own. So every man needs to be [held] accountable and reliable for their mistake.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Maffei told the judge that Mr. Douglas “played Russian roulette with his customers’ lives.”

“Deaths were inevitable from this defendant’s conduct,” Mr. Maffei said. “The idea that he didn’t know that something was going to happen is laughable.”