Creator and producer of the hit show The Wire, David Simon, has asked the judge to show leniency for Michael K. Williams’ drug dealer.
According to reports, Simon had sent a three-page letter to the Federal District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams to ask him to be lenient on Carlos Macci. Macci was one of the four men who pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing heroin to the late actor in September 2021, which ultimately killed him.
Simon believes that Williams was more responsible for his own death and that it wouldn’t be good to sentence a 71-year-old drug dealer. In the letter, Simon wrote, “What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy, but I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty: First, that it was Micahel who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened.”
The letter continued, “No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction.”
He went on to speak highly of Williams and say, “[He was] one of the finest actors with whom I have had the honor to collaborate and one of the most thoughtful, gracious, and charitable souls I could ever call a friend… I never failed to see him take responsibility for himself and his decisions.”
In September 2021, Michael K. Williams was found unresponsive in his Brooklyn apartment. It was ruled that he died from a drug overdose; a combination of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and, parafluorofentanyl. He was 54 years old.