The co-creator of The Wire, David Simon, has asked that the dealer who was part of the crew that sold a lethal dose to actor Michael K Williams gets mercy.
David was a close friend of Williams, who played drug-world gunman Omar Little in The Wire.
from a drug overdose. It was found by the Medical Examiner that the star by the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine.
Carlos Macci, 71, is one of four people who have been charged with supplying heroin laced with the opioid. They have all pleaded guilty. for agreeing to possess and distribute narcotics.
Now, David has written a three-page letter to the judge – Ronnie Abrams of the Federal District Court – asking for leniency.
David wrote that he is convinced Williams would have wanted him to write this letter due to his standpoint.
‘What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy,’ Simon wrote according to the ‘But I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty: First, that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened.’
The second is ‘no possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction.’
They added that Macci didn’t sell drugs for profit ‘but rather as someone caught up in the diaspora of addiction himself.’
Maci’s lawyer Benjamin Zeman is asking for him to receive a sentence of time served, which would be nearly one and a half years as he’s been in prison since February 2022. The court’s probation office have recommended a 10 year sentence.
Williams starred in The Wire from 2002 to 2008. The show, set in Baltimore, is based on detectives trying to solve the bridge that exists between the drug kingpins and law enforcement agencies.
In the letter, Simon wrote that Williams is ‘one of the finest actors with whom I have had the honour to collaborate and one of the most thoughtful, gracious and charitable souls I could ever call a friend.
‘I never failed to see him take responsibility for himself and his decisions.’
Williams, who was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment, was honest about his addictions.
He wrote in his memoir Scenes from my Life: ‘Every addict, every alcoholic has a self-loathing; we bathe ourselves in that. It’s the way for the addiction to keep us on the ropes, keep us connected to the darkness. It fuels off of it.’
Williams was best known for playing Omar, but he also had the role of Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire.
Williams also starred in HBO telefilm biopic Bessie and had supporting roles in other film and TV shows such as The Road, 12 Years A Slave, When They See Us and The Night Of.
The five-time Emmy nominee had also recently been announced to play Doc Broadus in an upcoming George Foreman biopic.
