Wethersfield Man Pleads Guilty To Dealing Fatal Dose Of Opioids: Feds

WETHERSFIELD, CT — A 40-year-old Wethersfield man Monday pleaded guilty in federal court to dealing opioids to a woman who later died of an overdose.

Vanessa Avery, U.S. attorney for Connecticut, said Jimmy Lassus, 40, of Wethersfield, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport to distribution of fentanyl and oxycodone.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in the early morning of Oct. 6, 2023, Meriden police responded to a residence on a report of a suspected overdose and found a 27-year-old woman unresponsive in a bedroom.

She was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced deceased.

The investigation revealed, that for several months before the victim’s death, the victim engaged in numerous drug-related text message conversations with Lassus, Avery said.

The text messages revealed Lassus supplied the victim with oxycodone, and that he supplied her with fentanyl that she ingested in the hours before she died, officials said.

The victim stated in text messages and in a journal entry that it was her first time using fentanyl, according to Avery.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the victim’s death to be caused by acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, benzodiazepines, xylazine, and oxycodone.

Lassus will be sentenced on Dec. 23, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

Lassus has been detained since his arrest on April 11.

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