Suspected dealer charged in connection with man’s overdose

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Rodney Coriano

NAUGATUCK — Police charged an Ansonia man with supplying the crack cocaine a Naugatuck man used before overdosing and dying late last year.

Rodney Coriano, 29, of 218 North State St., Ansonia, turned himself in to Naugatuck police on a warrant shortly before 2 a.m. Friday. Police charged him with criminally negligent homicide and first-degree reckless endangerment in connection to the man’s death.

The charges resulted from an investigation that started on Dec. 31, 2016 when police conducted a welfare check on a 57-year-old man. The man’s son, who lives out of town, asked police to check on his father because he hadn’t heard from him recently.

Officers found the man dead on a couch, according to the warrant. There were three small bags with small amounts of crack in them and an empty bag on the couch next to the man, the warrant states. The man had a glass pipe with burnt residue in it in one hand and a lighter in the other, the warrant states.

An empty bottle of Zolpidem, a sleeping aid, was also found in the kitchen, the warrant states. The prescription on the bottle showed it was filled with 30 pills on Dec. 15, 2016.

Police looked through the man’s cellphone, which was on a table next to the couch, and saw a text was sent with the message “need 100,” a message known by officers as code used to buy drugs.

Two days later, officers texted the number with the message “need 100,” to which they received the reply “25 min,” the warrant states. The warrant states Coriano pulled into the driveway of the man’s home, and officers approached him.

Coriano was found with 4 grams of heroin, 5 grams of crack and 3 grams of marijuana on him, the warrant states, and he was arrested on multiple drug-related charges.

The medical examiner’s report of the deceased man, which police received in late March, showed he died of “acute cocaine toxicity.” The warrant states it didn’t appear that any of the man’s prescription medicines were linked to his death.

The report also showed that the man had Levamisole, a drug used to treat parasitic infections in animals, in his system, the warrant states. Levamisole is a common cutting agent for cocaine.

Tests done on the crack seized from Coriano in January showed it also had Levamisole in it, the warrant states. The baggies taken from Coriano were the same size, shape and appearance as the ones found on the couch next to the man, the warrants states, and cellphone records showed they communicated on Dec. 30, 2016.

Coriano appeared in Waterbury Superior Court on Friday. Aside from the charges filed by Naugatuck police, Coriano also has drug-related charges pending filed by Ansonia, Bridgeport, Derby and Waterbury police, according to court records.