Heroin Dealer Sentenced For Causing Death Of Wrestling Star

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY - A Ridge man was sentenced to prison on Friday after pleading guilty to distributing heroin that caused the death of a 20-year-old Kings Park man last year, according to the U.S. attorney.

Richard Jacobellis, 25, was sentenced at the federal courthouse in Central Islip by United States District Judge Joanna Seybert to 16 years of imprisonment, to be followed by three years’ supervised release, for distributing heroin.

When he pleaded guilty in June 2018, Jacobellis admitted that heroin he distributed caused the death of 20-year-old Nicholas Weber in 2016 and serious bodily injury to another in 2015.

In March 2015, one of his drug customers overdosed after using heroin that Jacobellis sold to him.

Suffolk County officers were able to quickly administer Naloxone, a nasal spray that reverses the effect of an opioid overdose, and save the man's life.

After that, he continued selling heroin to Long Island residents, prosecutors said. On May 17, 2016, he drove from his home in Ridge to Kings Park and sold $100 of heroin to Weber.

Weber, a Kings Park High School graduate, used that heroin and died shortly after.

While in high school, Weber was the Suffolk County wrestling champion for his weight class, and upon graduation, he was attending Suffolk County Community College.

He had been accepted to Stony Brook University where he was going to study physics starting in the fall of 2016.

Despite learning that his heroin killed Weber, Jacobellis continued to sell heroin

"With today’s sentence, Jacobellis will serve a significant jail term for callously pushing deadly heroin that resulted in the death of one young man and nearly killed another, but for the heroic efforts of Suffolk County Police Officers," United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said. "We hope the victims’ families can find some solace in this result and in the knowledge that this Office will continue working tirelessly to hold accountable those who contribute to the opioid epidemic on Long Island and elsewhere in the district."

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