A Brooklyn man on Tuesday was sentenced to 19 years in prison for selling for fentanyl and heroin that caused the fatal overdose of LGBTQ activist Cecilia Gentili.
United States District Judge Brian M. Cogan sentenced Michael Kuilan, 45, to 19 years’ imprisonment, and ordered him to pay $24,482 in restitution and forfeit $30,000 and a seized firearm. The defendant was also sentenced to serve 15 years concurrently for unlawfully possessing a firearm as a felon, according to Joseph Nocella, the United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York.
According to court documents and facts presented in court, on February 6, 2024, Gentili was found dead in her bedroom in Brooklyn. Gentili died due to the combined effect of controlled substances, including fentanyl, xylazine, cocaine and heroin.
Text messages and other evidence revealed that co-defendant Antonio Venti sold the fentanyl and heroin mixture to Gentili on February 5, 2024, and that Kuilan supplied Venti with those lethal narcotics. When law enforcement searched an apartment in Williamsburg belonging to Kuilan, they found hundreds of baggies of fentanyl, a handgun and ammunition.
“Cecilia Gentili was tragically poisoned from fentanyl-laced heroin. Today, the perpetrators who sold the deadly drugs to Gentili are being held accountable," Nocella said in a statement. “This Office will be relentless in prosecuting fentanyl dealers.”
