Heroin Dealer Indicted In Queens Customers' Overdose Deaths: DA

FLUSHING, NY — A Long Island drug dealer is facing manslaughter charges for supplying the heroin that led to two overdose deaths, including that of his girlfriend, according to prosecutors in Queens.

It's the first time a drug dealer in Queens is facing homicide charges for an overdose death, according to the Queens district attorney's office.

Great Neck resident Justin Lum, 30, was charged Thursday with dealing heroin, cocaine and Xanax to his girlfriend and another man, who both died from drug overdoses.

In April 2017, Lum gave heroin to his girlfriend, Patricia Collado, at a College Point movie theater, prosecutors said. The two snorted lines of heroin off a cellphone while watching a film, then used more of Lum's heroin inside a parked car.

Then Collado, 28, stopped talking and passed out, and Lum pulled her out of the car at a Flushing intersection so first responders could give her an overdose reversal drug and rush her to the hospital, according to prosecutors.

After Collado left the hospital, the couple went to Lum's grandfather's home in Flushing. There, they snorted more heroin, causing Collado to go into cardiac arrest.

This time, Lum didn't call for help, and instead tried to stabilize her.

He told authorities he "didn't want to call the ambulance again," prosecutors said.

As Collado foamed at the mouth for about an hour, Lum took more drugs and fell asleep. The next morning, he found her unconscious and bubbling from her mouth.

He called 911 and tried to revive her with CPR using a dispatcher's instructions, but by the time EMTs arrived, she was dead.

An autopsy determined Collado died of intoxication from the combined effects of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.

Less than a year later, in March 2018 at Lum's Great Neck home, Lum gave heroin to Bayside resident Calvin Brown.

Brown, 24, took the drugs and immediately suffered a medical emergency, prosecutors said.

Lum called 911 and gave Brown CPR until first responders arrived. Brown survived the overdose after being rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Eight days after the overdose, Brown — who had left the hospital just three days before — returned to Lum's home and bought more heroin, prosecutors said.

The next day, Brown's mother found him dead in his bedroom. An autopsy determined Brown died of intoxication from heroin, alprazolam, diazepam and phenobarbital.

In April 2018, investigators recorded a conversation between Lum and one of his customers in which Lum said he was safe from prosecution for the overdose deaths because of the "Good Samaritan law. I can’t get in trouble."

Lum returns to court on Dec. 11. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to 126 years in prison.

Patch editor Daniel Hampton contributed reporting.