HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal court has rejected the appeal of a Connecticut man who argued his four-year prison sentence for selling drugs to an overdose victim was too long.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled Monday that Nefty Rodriguez's sentence was not excessive.
Rodriguez, of Hartford, pleaded guilty to a drug charge last year in connection with a 2015 heroin and cocaine overdose that left a 21-year-old Tolland woman in a permanent vegetative state.
Rodriguez's public defenders argued the sentencing judge made mistakes, including citing Rodriguez's Facebook posts as a reason for a prison term longer than federal sentencing guidelines suggested. Prosecutors say Rodriguez showed no remorse in the posts, including one in which he called the federal case a "minor setback."