A Putnam man has been charged with allegedly selling fentanyl disguised as a less-potent prescription painkiller to a woman who fatally overdosed nearly four years ago.
Rohan “G” Robinson, 38, was arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree manslaughter and illegal sale of a controlled substance in connection with the death of a woman in Stafford in 2021, according to Connecticut State Police.
The 24-year-old woman, who was not named in police records, was found unresponsive on a couch in her friend’s house on Sept. 22, 2021, following a night of drinking at Charlee Bravos in Putnam.
After leaving the bar, the woman and a friend reportedly met up with an alleged drug dealer named “G” to buy what they thought were Percocet pills, according to the arrest warrant affidavit for Robinson.
State police allege that Robinson sold pills marked as prescription Percocets, which were actually a mix of fentanyl and Tramadol, to the two women early in the morning after arranging a deal via texts and calls to a burner phone, the warrant affidavit said.
According to the warrant affidavit, the victim’s friend — whose name was also redacted from records — told investigators that the two snorted one of the four pills they purchased from “G” after leaving the bar. She and other witnesses told state police they did not know the man’s real name.
After taking the drugs, the friend told state police that the victim passed out in the car on the way to a party at the dealer’s house. She was unable to get out of the car, so was taken back to another friend’s house for the night. There, the friend and another person put the woman on the couch to sleep and went to bed themselves, the warrant affidavit said. But the woman never woke up.
The friends, referred to as Witnesses 1 and 2 in the warrant affidavit, told police they woke up the next afternoon and found the woman still on the couch but unresponsive and called 911.
The woman was pronounced dead shortly after paramedics arrived and tried to administer CPR, according to the warrant affidavit.
A medical examiner said she had alcohol, fentanyl and cocaine in her blood and died of “acute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl and alcohol,” the warrant affidavit said.
Robinson’s arrest came after an extensive investigation into the woman’s death that ranged from reviewing phone records to showing a photo lineup to multiple witnesses who identified Robinson as an alleged drug dealer who went by the names “G” and “G-Unit,” according to the warrant affidavit.
State police first interviewed Robinson at his probation officer’s office in November 2022. He allegedly told investigators he did not know the woman who died very well despite having a tattoo, visible to state police on his forearm, of peas in a peapod next to the woman’s date of birth and the date she died, the warrant affidavit said.
He also denied going by the nicknames “G” or “G-Unit” or selling narcotics, state police said.
Investigators, however, allege that he “knowingly sold the decedent a strong dose of fentanyl, which contributed to her death,” according to the warrant affidavit.
State police interviewed one of the woman’s cousins, who claimed that they called Robinson immediately after finding out the woman died, asking if he had seen her the night before.
The cousin told state police that Robinson allegedly confessed to meeting the victim and her friend “at the Fabyan Bridge to sell them what he claimed were Percocet pills,” the warrant affidavit said.
“‘G’ seemed distraught, saying this was the one time he sold something like this and he ended up killing one of his best friends,” the cousin told state police, according to the warrant affidavit.
Although the pills tested positive for fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, and Tramadol, they were marked with the markings that would be on prescription Oxycodone, state police said.
State police allege that the pills were made to look like legitimate prescription tablets and that “the victim, believing she was sold Percocet, unknowingly ingested fentanyl and later died as a result,” according to the warrant affidavit.
State police reviewed the victim’s phone records and found multiple calls and texts to someone stored in her phone as “G-Unit” that allegedly involved coordinating a meeting time and place the night before she died, the warrant affidavit said.
The phone number linked to “G-Unit” was allegedly connected to a phony name and address, state police said. But after state police received an anonymous email containing a photo of Robinson outside a bar in Danielson, Putnam law enforcement officers helped identify Robinson as the dealer who allegedly went by that name, according to the warrant affidavit.
Multiple witnesses reportedly identified Robinson in a photo lineup as the person, and dealer, they knew as “G,” including a bartender who worked at Charlee Bravos for nearly 20 years.
Robinson was taken into custody Wednesday by multiple law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service and Connecticut State Police Troop D.
He was being held on a $150,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in court in Danielson on Thursday, records show.
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