After a New York Fashion Institute of Technology student, Annabel Richter, died from a fatal dose of fentanyl in her dorm given to her by a man who raped her as she fell unconscious, the college is requiring all campus public safety personnel to carry portable Narcan as part of their uniform, according to the school’s president.
Annabel Richter and her roommate fell unconscious in their dorm on March 18 after suspect Moises Freire, 19, gave them fentanyl, telling them it was pure cocaine, federal officials said. Freire then raped Richter while she lay unconscious, prosecutors said. Richter lapsed into a coma and died four days later, while her roommate regained consciousness after receiving life-saving treatment.
FIT President Jason Schupbach called Richter’s death a “horrific tragedy” in a statement sent to students and faculty on Friday.
“After this incident, we continue to review our policies. Public safety supervisors on campus are now required to carry portable Narcan at all times as part of their uniform. This protocol is in addition to the Narcan kits stationed in the lobbies of each of the residence halls along with the defibrillator units,” he said.
Freire waited for 45 minutes after the women fell unconscious before alerting campus security, claiming they both simply drank too much, prosecutors said. In the meantime, he took pictures of them as they lay unconscious, which he shared with his friends. He is not an FIT student.
“When campus security was alerted that our students were unconscious, we took immediate action. The situation was assessed, Narcan was administered, city and federal agents were called to the scene, and the suspect was arrested and has been held since that time,” Schupbach said.
“We are… grateful for the swift action of our residential life team and campus public safety whose actions led to immediate medical response for the victims and the detention of the suspect,” he continued.
Richter’s mother, filmmaker and poet Flavia Rocha, said her daughter was a “luminous presence” who “had so many plans and aspirations for the future, and love in her heart.”
“We miss her so much,” Rocha said in a statement given to the New York Times on Friday. “We hope her story brings awareness about the deadly harms our kids are exposed to, and their vulnerabilities, especially when it comes to the safety of young women.”
“We also hope it brings justice,” she added.
Freire told his accomplice, Brian Peralta Cabrera, 18, that he wanted to feed the two victims drugs that were strong enough to “last the entire night” in the hopes of getting both women addicted to narcotics, calling it a “win-win scenario,” federal prosecutors said in a superseding indictment against the two men filed on Thursday.
“This case alleges not only the deadly distribution of fentanyl to two young women but also the sexual assault of a victim rendered defenseless by that poisoning,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said Thursday in announcing the new indictment.
At a court hearing in April, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariana Bloom told the judge that Freire admitted in a written statement to campus security that he had sex with the woman and realized she was unconscious afterward.
A toxicology test later confirmed that both women had fentanyl, but no cocaine, in their systems.
Freire was arrested later that day, while Peralta Cabrera was apprehended on March 24.
Both men are charged in the superseding indictment with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance resulting in death, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Freire is additionally charged with distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and serious bodily injury as well as distribution of a controlled substance with the intent to commit rape.
The two suspects pleaded not guilty to an initial set of charges that did not include the rape allegation. They have yet to be arraigned on the new indictment.
At the April hearing, Freire’s lawyer, Mitchell Schwartz, called the woman’s death a tragedy but said Freire was not trying to ply the students with drugs.
If anything, he told Judge Sidney Stein, what preceded the overdoses — including the woman’s suggestion that Freire wear a wig and “look like a girl” so he could sneak up to her dorm room after she had invited him over — was “a story of teenagers doing what I would call ‘dumb teenager things.’”
“It’s not dumb teenager things to give somebody fentanyl, sir,” Stein replied.
Freire’s bail application was denied after his initial arrest in April, and he remains in custody, officials said. Cabrera is out on a $75K bond, home detention with location monitoring.
Freire lives in the Bronx, while Peralta Cabrera lives in Queens, officials said.
A third defendant, Harry Rosales Pino, pleaded guilty in September to a charge of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury. He is set to be sentenced in December.
With Rebecca White and News Wire Services