Posted on: October 03, 2019 02:00 PM

Share : Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp

Great Neck resident indicted on manslaughter charges for the death of two people

Queens Acting District Attorney John M. Ryan today announced that a Queens County grand jury has indicted a Long Island man on manslaughter charges and other crimes for allegedly distributing cocaine, alprazolam (brand name Xanax) and heroin - in at least one case laced with fentanyl - to a woman and a man on two separate occasions and in both instances the victims overdosed and died in April of 2017 and March of 2018, respectively. In fact, the defendant woke up to find his girlfriend dead beside him with foam oozing from her mouth, less than 24 hours after the woman had been hospitalized for a non-fatal heroin overdose, that the defendant witnessed.

Acting District Attorney Ryan said, ?Even though fatal overdoses have been on the decline in Queens County this past year, every loss of life causes undue pain and heartache particularly when the death could have been prevented. The defendant in this case is accused of knowingly supplying drugs to both victims, even though, he knew his girlfriend and the acquaintance had nearly died as a result of earlier overdoses - in one instance the non-fatal overdose was less than 24 hours before the victim?s death. The defendant?s alleged actions weren?t just intolerable and unconscionable, but they were also criminal.?

?Heroin, unfortunately, has made a deadly come back in Queens County and throughout New York City and our nation as a whole,? continued Acting DA Ryan. ?Overdose deaths have far outpaced homicides in the last few years. These are individuals who have become addicted to opioids and when heroin is laced with fentanyl there is an added risk since the synthetic opioid can be more than 50 times more potent than heroin. The dealers who profit from distributing these drugs bear responsibility when their clients die. This defendant thought he was safe from prosecution. He was dead wrong.?

The District Attorney?s Office identified the defendant as Justin Lum, 30, of Forest Row in Great Neck, Long Island. The defendant was arraigned today before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth C. Holder on a 15-count indictment charging Lum with 3 counts of second-degree manslaughter and multiple counts of third- and fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. Justice Holder remanded the defendant and ordered him to return to Court on December 11, 2019. If convicted, the defendant faces between 26 to 126 years in prison.

According to the charges, on April 27, 2017, Lum supplied heroin to his girlfriend, Brooklyn resident Patricia Collado, 28, at a movie theater in College Point, Queens. The two watched a film and allegedly got high snorting lines of heroin from a cell phone. After the movie, Lum and Ms. Collado left the area and again allegedly used heroin supplied by Lum inside a parked car, when the victim suddenly stopped talking and passed out. The defendant pulled the unconscious woman out of the vehicle at 56th Avenue and Main Street, where first responders administered Naloxone to the woman and transported her to a hospital nearby.

Continuing, said ActingDA Ryan, according to the charges, the defendant stayed at Ms. Collado?s bedside at the hospital and when she was discharged shortly after 11 p.m., the couple went to Lum?s grandfather?s home on Colden Street in Flushing, Queens. There, the two allegedly snorted more heroin supplied by Lum and Ms. Collado again went into cardiac arrest, however this time the defendant did not call for medical attention and attempted to ?stabilize her? and stated in sum and substance that he ?didn?t want to call the ambulance again.? For an hour, as Ms. Collado foamed at the mouth, the defendant allegedly consumed more drugs and went to sleep. Shortly after 8 a.m. the next morning, Lum awoke to find the victim beside him unconscious with foam bubbling from her mouth. Only then did the defendant call 911 and administered CPR per the instructions of the medical dispatcher on the phone. By the time emergency medical technicians arrived Ms. Collado was dead. An autopsy performed on her remains concluded she died from acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.

Acting DA Ryan continued, according to the charges, less than a year later in March of 2018, Lum allegedly supplied heroin to Calvin Brown, who lived in Bayside, Queens. Brown was inside Lum?s Great Neck residence on March 1, 2018, when he consumed drugs allegedly provided by Lum and immediately had a medical emergency. The defendant called 911 and gave the 24-year-old man CPR until first responders arrived. Brown was taken to an area hospital for treatment and survived the near fatal overdose.

According to the charges, the Acting DA said, Brown was discharged from the hospital on March 6, 2018. Three days later, on March 9, 2018, Brown returned to Lum?s home and allegedly got more heroin from the defendant, who stated in sum and substance that the victim needed it so much that he gave it to him to get him to go home. The next day, Brown was found by his mother in their Queens? home. He was in his bedroom, seated in a chair with his head slumped onto a desk. He was dead. An autopsy performed on the victim?s body showed the cause of death was acute intoxication from the combined effects of heroin, alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam and phenobarbital.

Acting DA Ryan added that, an investigation that began following the death of Collado included recorded conversations between the defendant and another individual known to the District Attorney?s Office. On April 9, 2018, the defendant was heard allegedly telling that individual - whom he was allegedly selling drugs to - that if he died ?You?d be technically my third body. I woke up next to my ex-girlfriend, like OD?d. The thing is, I saved her the night before.? Lum allegedly continued with the conversation stating in sum and substance that ?this other kid I saved too. Just like 3 weeks ago...He just sniffed a line and then passed out. I did the chest compressions.?

Continuing, according to the charges, the defendant allegedly told the individual that he was safe from prosecution because of the ?Good Samaritan law. I can?t get in trouble.?

It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. (From Queens DA's Office)