Miller Place man pleads guilty in overdose death of woman, selling fentanyl to man whose infant ingested drug

A Miller Place man pleaded guilty to charges of "recklessly causing the death" of a Patchogue woman who overdosed after he sold her fentanyl, and selling the drug to a Lake Grove man whose 11-month-old infant later suffered from fentanyl poisoning.

Robert Mauro, 40, of Miller Place, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the death of a 31-year-old Patchogue woman who died the day after he sold her a drug mixture containing fentanyl in January, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced Friday. Mauro, prosecutors said, had reassured her before the sale, that he was selling her a "non-fenty mix."

Mauro also sold fentanyl to James Carr, of Lake Grove, whose infant "suffered serious physical injuries as a result of fentanyl poisoning" also back in January, according to a release from Tierney’s office.

A review of Carr’s phone by authorities revealed he and Mauro allegedly discussed a narcotics deal in January and that Mauro allegedly "knew that the narcotics that he offered to sell to Carr were so strong that they had caused an overdose of an unidentified individual," according to the district attorney’s office. A few days later on Jan. 9, Mauro allegedly sold Carr fentanyl.

On Jan. 13, Suffolk County police and members of the Ronkonkoma Fire Department responded to a 911 call reporting a nonresponsive infant on Colmar Avenue in Lake Grove. When they arrived, first responders found that Carr’s 11-month-old infant "had turned blue, his eyes were rolled toward the back of his head, and he was having extreme difficulty breathing," according to Tierney’s office. Hospital staff diagnosed the infant with acute fentanyl poisoning, hypoxia and respiratory failure and revived him with additional doses of Narcan.

That same day, Carr was arrested and subsequently indicted by a grand jury for second-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a child and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He is due back in court on Nov. 8 for conference according to court documents.

On Jan. 26, the 31-year-old Patchogue woman, who authorities have not identified, texted Mauro about a narcotics sale on her cellphone police recovered from the home where she was found dead three days later.

"She texted, ‘I’m not trying to drop dead’ and asked, ‘is it really strong? Should I be concerned?’" according to the district attorney’s office. "Mauro responded that ‘lol u will b fine’ and that he would sell her a ‘non-fenty’ mix, meaning narcotics without any fentanyl."

But in the Patchogue home where they found the victim, authorities said police also found a quantity of fentanyl/4-ANPP, a chemical found in fentanyl mixes, which they allege Mauro sold her on Jan. 28. Authorities said an autopsy concluded her cause of death was acute intoxication due to the combined effects of narcotics including fentanyl.

On Feb. 20, authorities executed a search warrant at Mauro’s Miller Place home. Mauro allegedly threw a digital scale and a quantity of fentanyl/4-ANPP out of his bedroom window into the snow, but the district attorney said those items were recovered by law enforcement along with his cellphone.

A review of Mauro’s phone revealed that on Jan. 26, the same day he had reassured the Patchogue woman, he "told an unidentified purchaser that his product was so strong that it put him out for a couple of hours." In a separate conversation, he told another contact that "he was afraid" to use his narcotics alone, despite having Narcan nearby.

He is expected to be sentenced to the maximum indeterminate period of five to fifteen years upstate incarceration on the first offense, and a concurrent period of seven years determinate upstate incarceration on the second, to be followed by a period of two years post-release supervision. He is due back in court for sentencing on Dec. 10, 2024.

Mauro "feels very remorseful" about both incidents and "really wanted to own up to what he’d done," his defense attorney Matthew Tuohy said Friday.

"He was on a tremendous amount of drugs," Tuohy said. "He lost both his mother and father in one year and he had a bad addiction to drugs. His actions and some of the text messages ... wasn’t really him or who he’s about."