WHITE PLAINS – A Hopewell Junction
man faces 20 years to life in federal prison for selling heroin and fentanyl
that caused the deaths of three people.
Dennis Sica, 37, pled guilty Monday to participating in a conspiracy to
distribute the drugs, the use of which killed Anthony Delello, Laura Brown
and Thomas Miller.
According to the allegations and court proceedings, from at least 2013
to February 2014, Sica and others worked together in Dutchess County to
sell a potent form of heroin, bags of which were stamped with the brand
name “Breaking Bad.” Some of the drugs distributed by Sica
were laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is much stronger than
street heroin.
On the night of December 28, 2013, Sica sold “Breaking Bad”
heroin to Anthony Delello, 20, of Beekman. He snorted some of the drug
and was found dead by his girlfriend the next day. The Dutchess County
Medical Examiner’s report said he died from “acute heroin
intoxication.”
Four days after Delello was found dead, Sica exchanged text messages with
a co-conspirator urging him to delete the text message history in the
phone they used to sell heroin, and if asked, to deny knowing anything
about Delello or how he died.
A month later, two more individuals died after overdosing on “Breaking
Bad” heroin.
On February 2, 2014, Thomas Miller, 31, was found dead by his mother at
his home in Pawling. A hypodermic needle as well as several glassine bags
stamped with the words “Breaking Bad,” were found near his
body. Some of the bags were empty. A chemical analysis found the drugs
were a mixture of quinine, fentanyl and heroin. The medical examiner determined
Miller died of “acute intoxication by the combined efforts of heroin
of fentanyl.”
The same day Miller was found dead, Laura Brown, 35, was found dead of
an apparent heroin overdose in Hew Milford, Connecticut. She was found
with needles and glassine bags near her body. Several of the bags were
stamped “Breaking Bad.” The autopsy showed she died of “acute
heroin and fentanyl intoxication.”
According to Brown’s brother, he and Brown together bought “Breaking
Bad” heroin from Sica two days before Brown was found dead.
Sica was arrested on February 2, 2014 in East Fishkill after a car in
which he was riding was stopped by police. During a search of the vehicle,
police found several bags of drugs stamped “Breaking Bad”
identical to the one that appears on the envelopes recovered from Miller’s
bedroom.
