Hempstead man sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for heroin dealing

A Hempstead man who sold and conspired to sell hundreds of grams of heroin to a dealer was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison — a harsher punishment than usual.

Michael Price, 37, was among 31 people arrested in 2016 as part of a sting that targeted several drug operations that authorities said supplied narcotics from Long Island to Albany.

A jury convicted Price in December of conspiring to sell about 300 grams of heroin between May and June of 2016 to co-defendant Hassan Lloyd, according to Price’s attorney, Joseph LoPiccolo of Garden City. Nassau prosecutors said Lloyd then resold the drugs to other dealers.

Price was also found guilty of possessing and selling about $100 worth of heroin in March 2016, but LoPiccolo said his client testified at trial that he had actually sold marijuana. 

Nassau prosectors said Price earned more than $80,000 in profits from his illegal enterprise.

“Michael Price poisoned our streets, endangered lives and caused countless people to become addicted to dangerous drugs like heroin for nothing more than greed,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a news release.

Price was convicted of two counts of conspiracy in the second degree, criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance, both in the third degree. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the remaining six drug-related charges, which Singas’ office dismissed.

Lloyd pleaded guilty to attempted conspiracy in the second-degree and was sentenced to three to six years in prison, a spokeswoman for Singas said.

At his sentencing Friday, Price had faced 4 1/2 to 25 years in prison, LoPiccolo said. But Acting State Supreme Court Justice Teresa Corrigan, who presided over Price’s trial, determined that Price was a “persistent felony offender” because he had previously been convicted of at least two felony crimes. With that finding, the judge imposed a prison term beyond the maximum.

Price told Corrigan that he did not think it was fair that the judge imposed an “enhanced” sentence.

LoPiccolo agreed, noting such sentences are rarely used for non-violent crimes like selling drugs.