Did bad heroin kill two coeds?

New York Daily News and lastnightsparty.com ^ | 8/16/05 | AUSTIN FENNER, ADAM LISBERG and ROBERT F. MOORE

[BurbankKarl]

Two college coeds used cocaine with a pair of convicted drug dealers and had fresh needle marks on their arms when they overdosed in a lower East Side apartment, sources said yesterday.

Police believe a bad batch of heroin may have contributed to the deaths of Mellie Carballo and Maria Pesantez, both 18 and with promising futures.

It was unclear who supplied the drugs, but heartbroken relatives of the victims blamed Roberto Martinez, 41, and Alfredo (Tito) Morales, 33, who were with the teens Friday when the students apparently overdosed.

"How is it possible that they are free?" asked distraught father Juan Carlos Pesantez outside the family's home in Jackson Heights, Queens. "With those [criminal] records? With two girls dead?"

Carballo, a second-semester student at Hunter College, and Pesantez, an NYU sophomore, were found about 6 p.m. Friday in an apartment at 484 E. Houston St. Carballo died 20 minutes later and Pesantez died Sunday.

The men admitted doing cocaine with the women, who met at St. Vincent Ferrer High School in Manhattan, a law enforcement source said.

Martinez, who placed a bouquet of red roses in front of the E. Houston St. apartment yesterday, told a different story to the Daily News. He said he came to the apartment, where Morales lives, after Morales called him in a panic.

"I saw [Pesantez] in the bedroom catching a seizure," Martinez said yesterday. "I tried to give her mouth-to-mouth and then I called 911."

Martinez said he met Carballo at a bar about a month ago and didn't meet Pesantez until Friday. He denied giving the women drugs, saying they brought drugs to Morales' apartment.

No one has been arrested and toxicology results are pending.

Morales was convicted in 1995 of possession of cocaine with intent to sell. Martinez, whose is on parole, has 13 narcotics arrests.

The coeds' friends told cops the women wanted to try heroin, a police source said. The friends also told police that Carballo, a former MTV intern, and Pesantez, a pianist and National Honor Society member, had done drugs before.

Relatives dispute that account.

"To my knowledge, she had never experimented with anything," said Celeste Carballo, 21, who shared a room with her sister at the family's West Side apartment.

College students Mellie Carballo (left) and Maria Pesantez, both 18, in an undated photo. The coeds died of suspected drug overdoses in a lower East Side apartment

Photos taken from memorial at http://www.lastnightsparty.com/mellie/index.html

[durasell]

You're kind of a bitter guy, aren't you?

[fortunecookie]

That's a great point. Some of them, however, don't mind if it happens to someone else.

[durasell]

Do you talk to your dealer like that?


LOL!

(that's great!)

[Know your rights]

Do you talk to your dealer like that?

I have no dealer ... and you have no argument.

[G32]

Then you grow your own? Do you talk to your stash that way too?

[Know your rights]

Small things amuse small minds.

[Know your rights]

Then you grow your own?

I grow only tomatoes. You should grow a backbone.

[durasell]

I takes my laughs where I find them...

[G32]

You should grow a brain. neener neener.

[Blackirish]

The guy who said that would of said that about me. He can say what he wants. He just does not know about life. Go to any AA meeting and you will hear truly mind blowing stories about people who were rock bottom and now devote there lives to helping others. People change. I think everybody deserves a 2nd chance. I believe that was Jesus's message also.

[Know your rights]

To say something is not within the proper authority of government to ban, is not to say it's moral or even neutral. Scripture offers no support for the infantile notion that all evil must be made illegal.

In case you'd forgotten, this is what an actual argument looks like.

[G32]

lol, quoting yourself as an authority.

The guy that hit you as a severe narcissist was even more right than I thought.

[Know your rights]

quoting yourself as an authority

Nope, quoting myself because you've provided no arguments for me to quote.

[G32]

Whatever.. The arguments are legion, you just ignore them.

[Know your rights]

The arguments are legion

None have shown up on this thread ... certainly not from you.

[G32]

None from you either.

[Know your rights]

False; see, as just one example, post #158.

[G32]

Whatever.

[durasell]

...and certainly none from me, though I would suggest Know Your Rights would visit a couple of ghettos to see what bottom looks like. If he'd like, I can take him to the project here in NYC where the two girls died and he can talk to some of the people there...

[Know your rights]

Whatever.

See, that's an example of what's NOT an argument.