Bridgeport Man Admits Selling Heroin While Awaiting Sentencing for Selling Heroin to Overdose Victim

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that DARRYCK NORRIS, 25, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to distributing heroin while released on bond and awaiting sentencing for a prior heroin distribution offense. 

According to court documents and statements made in court, at approximately 8:49 p.m. on October 27, 2016, Milford Police and emergency medical personnel responded to a residence in Milford and found an unresponsive 37-year-old male slumped over in the downstairs living area of the residence.  Emergency personnel attempted lifesaving measures and administered two doses of the opiate antidote Narcan, which had no effect.  The victim was pronounced deceased.  Officers searched the immediate area and seized four empty baggies and one full baggy that contained suspected heroin.  Each of the bags was stamped with the same brand stamp.

Officers also seized the victim’s iPhone.  Analysis of text messages revealed that the victim had ordered heroin from NORRIS earlier that day.  Witness interviews and further cellphone analysis revealed that the victim had purchased heroin from NORRIS for several months prior to the victim’s overdose.

On November 1, 2016, members of the DEA and Milford Police Department conducted a controlled purchase of heroin from NORRIS in Bridgeport.  The heroin bags purchased were stamped with the same stamp that was found on the bags seized from the overdose victim’s residence.

NORRIS was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on November 3, 2016, and was released on a $50,000 bond.  On May 17, 2017, he pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of heroin.

Judge Underhill allowed NORRIS to remain released on bond pending sentencing, and granted NORRIS’s request to attend the U.S. District Court’s Support Court program.

On February 16, 2018, NORRIS was arrested by the Bridgeport Police Department and charged with possession of narcotics with intent to sell, and other offenses. Subsequent investigation revealed that NORRIS had been distributing heroin between approximately December 2017 and his arrest on February 16.

When he is sentenced, NORRIS faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count of distribution of heroin.  A sentencing date is not scheduled.

NORRIS is released on a $50,000 bond pending sentencing.

This matter is being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport Resident Office, the DEA’s New Haven Task Force, and the Milford and Bridgeport Police Departments.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas P. Morabito.