New York man charged with rape and lethal fentanyl dosing of college student
US federal prosecutors accuse a 19-year-old man of raping a student after giving her fentanyl that led to her death. Three men face charges in the case, two of them over a drug distribution conspiracy.
The US Department of Justice said on Thursday that Moises Freire, 19, is charged with raping a student at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), part of the State University of New York system, after she was given a dose of fentanyl. Prosecutors say she lost consciousness and later died. The case is among the latest in the US justice system involving fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that the federal government identifies as a primary driver of drug-related deaths in the country.
What happened
According to prosecutors, Freire, who was not an FIT student, visited two women in their dorm room on 18 March and brought a substance he falsely said was pure cocaine. Although he allegedly described it as “straight poison”, he persuaded the women to take it, and both quickly lost consciousness. One of them fell into a coma and died on 21 March. The other overdosed and nearly died.
At an April court hearing, Assistant US Attorney Ariana Bloom said Freire admitted in writing that he raped the woman while she was unconscious. She said he sent pictures of the women to others, waited about 40 minutes and only then alerted building security. He never called an ambulance himself, she said.
The defendants
Freire, described as being from the Bronx, faces counts of participating in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and of distributing a deadly drug with intent to commit rape. Brian Peralta Cabrera, 18, of Queens, is also charged in connection with the drug conspiracy. A third defendant, Harry Rosales Pino, pleaded guilty in September to plotting to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury. He is tentatively due to be sentenced on 15 December.
At the hearing, a prosecutor alleged that Rosales sold the fentanyl to Peralta, who dealt it to Freire, who then gave it to the women. The initial charges did not include the rape allegation, and all three men pleaded not guilty to them. Updated charges against Freire and Peralta were filed on Thursday. By Friday neither had been arraigned on them, and both remained in federal custody.
FIT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
