A West Bath man who furnished a fatal dose of heroin to a former girlfriend was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in federal prison.
Mickey Gilley, 35, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland by Chief Judge Nancy Torresen after pleading guilty on Aug. 1. Gilley was also ordered to undergo three years of supervised release.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Gilley supplied heroin and fentanyl to a former girlfriend with whom he was prohibited from having contact because of bail conditions stemming from a previous domestic violence case. The woman died from using the drugs.
Gilley “failed to call emergency personnel because, as he admitted, he feared being arrested for violating his bail conditions,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. “The former girlfriend died as a result of using the drugs furnished by the defendant. In imposing the sentence, Chief Judge Torresen noted that the defendant chose his own liberty over the life of his former girlfriend.”
According to an affidavit filed by Chad Carleton, a special agent with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, Gilley and the former girlfriend used heroin on the night of Sept. 20, 2016. Gilley told Carleton he went to Portland that evening to buy heroin before returning to West Bath to the woman’s apartment.
Carleton said Gilley used heroin by injecting it while his former girlfriend snorted it. Medical personnel later confirmed the victim had ingested heroin and fentanyl. Gilley was charged with distribution of heroin and fentanyl resulting in death, court records show.
“This case combines two of the biggest challenges facing Maine – the illegal distribution of opiates and domestic violence,” U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank said in a statement. “Heroin and fentanyl are deadly poisons that are killing Mainers in record numbers.”
Frank said the U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work closely with the Maine Attorney General’s Office to make the investigation of such cases a priority.
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