Windfall lady convicted of involuntary manslaughter in overdose dying of North Attleboro man

A Windfall lady pleaded responsible to involuntary manslaughter in reference to a 2021 incident through which prosecutors say a person died after she gave him fentanyl after which left with out calling 911 after noticing he was unresponsive. 

Emily Velez, 31 pleaded responsible Friday to involuntary manslaughter, stealing a motorcar, and larceny over $250 of an individual over 60 in reference to the dying and theft of 61-year-old North Attleboro resident Dennis Heelen, the Bristol County District Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned in a press launch Friday. 

On Nov. 24, 2021, round 6 p.m., Velez was arrested in Warwick, Rhode Island, for shoplifting at a Walmart, the discharge mentioned. Quickly after, she instructed police they need to examine on Heelen as a result of she had used fentanyl with him earlier that day and he was unresponsive when she left him at 10 a.m. 

Velez additionally admitted to police that she took Heelen’s automotive, cellphone, and pockets when she left his home, the discharge mentioned. The DA’s workplace mentioned authorities have proof that she later used his bank card.

Round 7 p.m. that night, North Attleboro police went to Heelen’s home and located him lifeless in his mattress, the discharge mentioned. They discovered a small plastic bag with fentanyl residue in his bed room trash can, however no different drug paraphernalia or proof of drug use elsewhere in his house. This implies Velez introduced the fentanyl to the house, the DA’s workplace mentioned.

The Chief Medical Examiner’s Workplace decided that Heelen died of “acute intoxication from the mixed results of alcohol, fentanyl, cocaine, and oxycodone,” the discharge mentioned. 

“By offering and utilizing fentanyl with the sufferer, after which leaving him incapacitated and never calling for medical help, the defendant created a excessive diploma of probability of considerable hurt or dying to Dennis Heelen,” the DA’s workplace wrote within the launch. “The defendant’s intentional failure to name for assist was wanton and reckless and induced the sufferer’s dying.”

Choose Thomas Perrino sentenced Velez to a few to 5 years in jail and one yr of supervised probation.