HARTFORD – A former Wesleyan University student charging with dealing synthetic drugs that caused overdoses has been sentenced to prison.
Eric Lonergan, 23, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced Thursday to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for dealing drugs that caused several Wesleyan University students to overdose last year.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Lonergan and Zachary Kramer began selling both “Molly” and MDMA to students on or in the vicinity of the Wesleyan campus in November of 2103. Lonergan regularly sold Molly from his dorm room, charging around $200 per gram. Lonergan also counseled students on how to ingest Molly and other psychedelic drugs. At one point in 2014, after the administration at Wesleyan sent out a campus-wide communication warning of the dangers of ingesting controlled substances like Molly, Lonergan responded by distributing a pamphlet instructing students on the use of psychedelic drugs.
In September 2014, Kramer began purchasing what he believed to be Molly from Lonergan and dealing it to Wesleyan students. At times, Lonergan used a chemical test on the substance he sold Kramer to prove to him that he was selling Kramer high-quality MDMA.
In September 2014, Lonergan was the source of Molly for several students who were planning a “rolling” party at Wesleyan, which is a party where guests ingest Molly. He provided several grams of a substance he represented to be MDMA, in bulk, and another student then sold it to students in .1 gram capsules. At the party on September 13, 2014, several students became ill, some seriously, after ingesting the drug Lonergan gave them. Two were taken to the hospital.
After these overdoses, Lonergan sent email to several students assuring them that the substance he provided to them was indeed MDMA. One of the students who became ill at the party saved one of the capsules she had purchased and turned it over to the Middletown Police in February of 2015. A lab test on the contents of that capsule revealed that it did not contain MDMA, but contained two other controlled substances: AB Fubinaca an an analogue of MDMA.
Around December 2014, Kramer became the primary supplier of MDMA at Wesleyan. Kramer typically sold the MDMA in .1 gram quantities for $20 each or he sold it in 5-gram and 10-gram quantities for a discount, charging $100 or more, depending on the customer and the quantity. During this time period, Lonergan still supplied Kramer with bulk quantities of MDMA. In January 2015, Kramer purchased approximately 45 grams of MDMA from Lonergan. Kramer broke that quantity into 5 and 10-gram bags and distributed those bags to other students who planned to break down the MDMA into .1 gram capsules, sell those capsules to other Wesleyan students, and pay Kramer for the quantity of the drug he had provided to them.
On February 21, 2015, 11 people, including 10 Wesleyan students, overdosed on a substance they believed was MDMA, and many were taken to the hospital. Two of the students were in critical condition, and one of the students had to be revived after his heart stopped. All of these students got the supposed MDMA through individual distributors who were supplied directly by Kramer.
Although Kramer and some of his distributors destroyed the substance identified as Molly that they had in their possession, one of the distributors did not, and that substance was seized by law enforcement officers and sent to the toxicology laboratory for testing. Laboratory analysis confirmed that the powdered substance contained AB Fubinaca.
Lonergan and Kramer were arrested by federal authorities on May 22, 2015. On November 30, 2015, Lonergan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute, and to distribute, MDMA.
Kramer pleaded guilty to the same charge on November 12, 2015. On May 5, 2016, he was sentenced to eight months of home confinement with outpatient drug treatment, four months of imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.
