Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Joseph Pittman, 44, also known as “Tank,” of Bay Shore pleaded guilty and immediately sentenced to 8 ½ years in prison followed by three years of post-release supervision for selling cocaine laced with fentanyl that resulted in a fatal overdose.
“This defendant’s criminal history dates back more than 25 years. He is a recidivist criminal who turned a profit by peddling deadly fentanyl resulting in the death of Mr. Champlin,” said District Attorney Tierney. “This case is a prime example of why we need the legislature to pass a Death by Dealer statute. In New York there is currently no additional penalty for fentanyl dealers who cause deaths by selling this lethal poison. That is unconscionable and needs to change.”
According to court documents and the defendant’s statements during his plea allocution, on August 8, 2022, Suffolk County Police Department officers responded to a reported fatal overdose at 53-year-old Paul Champlin’s residence in Great River. Champlin was discovered by a friend in his bedroom.
As a result of a preliminary investigation, a white powder and a pocketknife with powder residue, which appeared to be cocaine, were recovered from the victim’s bedroom.
Also recovered was the victim’s cellular telephone. The powder was transported to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory, which confirmed it was a mixture of cocaine and fentanyl. The victim’s autopsy later revealed that he had died as a result of an Acute Mixed Drug Intoxication of Cocaine and fentanyl.
A review of the victim’s phone data revealed that the Pittman and Champlin engaged in a narcotics transaction on August 6, 2022, just prior to midnight.
An undercover detective from the Suffolk County Police Department was able to contact Pittman on that same phone number and arrange for the sale of narcotics on numerous occasions. On three dates, Pittman instructed the undercover detective to go to the same location where he sold cocaine laced with fentanyl to the overdose victim on August 6, 2022. On two of the transactions, Pittman sold the undercover detective cocaine laced with fentanyl.
On December 12, 2022, a search warrant was executed at Pittman’s residence at 115 N. First Avenue in Bay Shore, where police recovered cocaine, fentanyl, two digital scales and his cellular telephone. Pittman was observed by police attempting to destroy and discard his narcotics out of the bathroom window into a pile of snow, while the warrant was being executed. After he was arrested, Pittman acknowledged that he knew the victim and that the victim did not “do dope,” a street term for heroin and/or fentanyl.
Pittman has 27 prior convictions, five of which were felony convictions. He was on parole for Attempted Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree at the time he sold to Champlin and the undercover detective.
On October 18, 2023, Pittman pleaded guilty before Acting Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Richard I. Horowitz to six counts of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, Class B felonies; two counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree, Class B felonies and one count of Tampering with Evidence, a Class E felony.
During the plea, Pittman admitted that he sold the victim a combination of cocaine and fentanyl, that he committed the crime of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance on five subsequent occasions, and that on two of those sales, he knew he sold a combination of cocaine and fentanyl.
Justice Horowitz sentenced Pittman to 8 ½ years in prison followed by three years of post-release supervision.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Danielle Davis of the Narcotics Bureau with investigative assistance from Detective William Cocks of the Suffolk County Department’s Narcotics Section.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.