A Windsor man extradited from Virginia in March to face charges in a 2024 fatal overdose has signed a notice of intent to plead guilty.
Ora Labrake, 48, of Windsor, was indicted in April on felony charges of drug sale with death resulting, drug sale of less than half an ounce of fentanyl and possession in connection with the 2024 overdose death of 39-year-old Cory MacElman.
Labrake signed the notice in October, agreeing to plead guilty to one count of drug sale with death resulting. As proposed in a fully negotiated plea between the state and the defense, Labrake is agreeing to terms, pending a judge’s ruling, of a sentence of 3 1/2 to 10 years in state prison with a minimum of six months and a maximum of three years off, contingent on good behavior; a $5,000 fine suspended for 15 years; and no contact with the victim’s family.
The charge of drug sale with death resulting carries a potential penalty of life in prison and a $100,000 fine.
With cases under the state’s “death resulting” statute, prosecutors must conclusively establish that the victim’s overdose death was due to the drugs provided by the individual charged.
The Lebanon Police Department secured an arrest warrant for Labrake in June 2024 following an investigation into a suspected drug sale in April 2024 that police say resulted in MacElman’s death, the Valley News previously reported.
Roughly two years after the arrest warrant, police located Labrake in Virginia in March. Once taken into custody, he was extradited back to New Hampshire.
Labrake acted in concert with another man, 43-year-old Steven Gillingham, of Orange, New Hampshire, in supplying fentanyl to MacElman, a probable cause affidavit states.
Gillingham admitted to police that he and MacElman traveled together to the Target Plaza in West Lebanon the day MacElman died to “meet Gillingham’s source of supply of fentanyl, later identified as Labrake,” according to the affidavit.
Labrake was working as a DoorDash driver and asked Gillingham and MacElman to meet near Chili’s, where he was picking up an order, the affidavit states.
That evening, MacElman died of “acute fentanyl intoxication,” the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined.
Gillingham was sentenced in January 2025 to three to six years in state prison on charges of felony drug sale with death resulting and sale of less than one gram of fentanyl.
He was paroled the month Labrake was indicted, according to the inmate locator website VineLink.
Phone efforts to reach Labrake’s attorney, Adam Hescock of Marsicovetere and Levine Law Group in Hartford, and prosecutor Grafton County Deputy County Attorney Tara Heater were unsuccessful on Monday.
Labrake is scheduled for a plea and sentencing hearing at 10 a.m. on Dec. 11 in Grafton Superior Court.
