NEWPORT — A 37-year-old Claremont man was sentenced to at least six years in prison on Tuesday for selling drugs laced with fentanyl to a pregnant Lebanon woman who died hours later from an overdose.
Christopher Santolucito pleaded guilty Tuesday in Sullivan Superior Court to one count of distribution with a death resulting for selling drugs to Kacey Grizzaffi, 22, a few hours before she died from fentanyl toxicity on Feb 21. He also pleaded to two counts of second-degree assault for the stillbirth of Grizzaffi’s two fetuses, and to one count of falsifying physical evidence for trying to delete incriminating texts from his phone.
Santolucito was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for the distribution charge, with five years suspended for good behavior, according to Assistant Sullivan County Attorney Justin Hersh. For the falsifying evidence charge and one of the assault charges, he was given 3½- to 7-year sentences, which run concurrent to the longer sentences, and a suspended sentence for the second assault charge.
Santolucito could end up spending 6½ to 15 years in prison on all the charges, Hersh said.
Lori Grizzaffi, the victim’s mother, called her daughter “one of the most giving, selfless people I knew” who was excited to be a mother.
“As she grew up, she turned into a wonderful, caring, loving young lady. She had a heart of gold,” Lori Grizzaffi said in a prepared statement read in court Tuesday. She added in a message following Tuesday’s hearing that she had initially hoped Santolucito would serve life in prison, but has since changed her mind and believes he got an appropriate sentence.
“Chris apologized to me and my daughter in court for the pain he has caused my family. It sounded sincere,” Grizzaffi wrote. “I hope he gets the drug rehabilitation he needs while in prison to live a normal life when he gets out.”
Police started investigated Santolucito after Kacey Grizzaffi was found dead from an overdose in the bathroom of Birney’s Mini Mart in Claremont the night of Feb. 21, according to an affidavit written by Claremont police Detective Joshua Peavey.
Grizzaffi, who graduated from Lebanon High School in 2015 and later worked at Dunkin’ Donuts and Lebanon Village Pizza, was pregnant with twins, whom she had named Austin Hunter and Corey Scott, according to her obituary.
Investigators at the scene found two wax bags in Grizzaffi’s pocket that later tested positive for fentanyl, along with a cellphone that had texts between Grizzaffi and Santolucito earlier that day. In the texts, Grizzaffi and Santolucito planned to meet so she could buy drugs, the affidavit said.
Police also located surveillance video outside a gas station that showed Grizzaffi getting into a car with Santolucito and his girlfriend, Amber Brusco, 37, hours before her death, according to police.
Brusco pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell drugs and was sentenced to 12 months in prison in early October, Hersh said.
“It’s a tragic event all the way around and these cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute,” Hersh said in an interview following the hearing Tuesday. He added that similar cases often don’t lead to a conviction, partly because it’s hard to prove that a drug sale caused a person’s death unless there is a “close proximity of time” between the two.
For Kacey Grizzaffi’s family, her death was part of a string of tragic events this year. Her father, Billy Grizzaffi, 52, died in early October when he was hit by a train while walking with his wife and friend in Maine.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.