CT man who sold fentanyl to woman who died of overdose pleads guilty to narcotics charge

A man pleaded guilty to a federal narcotics charge on Monday after authorities said they found that he sold fentanyl to a woman who died of an overdose in Meriden last October.

Jimmy Lassus, 40, of Wethersfield pleaded guilty in federal court in Bridgeport to distribution of fentanyl and oxycodone, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut .

In the early morning hours of Oct. 6, 2023, officers with the Meriden Police Department responded to a residence in the city on the report of a suspected overdose. Emergency crews found a 27-year-old woman unresponsive in a bedroom, federal officials said. She was taken to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead.

According to authorities, investigators found numerous text messages between Lassus and the victim that spanned over several months prior to her death. The messages revealed Lassus was supplying the woman with oxycodone, officials said.

Federal authorities said Lassus provided the woman with fentanyl she used hours before she died. She wrote in the text messages and in a journal entry that it was her first time trying fentanyl, officials said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded that the woman died of acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, benzodiazepines, xylazine and oxycodone.

Lassus, who has been detained since April, is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 23. Officials said he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.