Posted on 08/17/2005 11:44:14 AM PDT by 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
How promising can the future be for a cocaine addict who hangs out with felons and who wants to graduate to heroin?
I know the parents want to believe they didn't do drugs before, but I know ravers when I see them.
Well, this is a clear evolution event. The human gene pool improving because of retards being removed from the pool of potential procreators. I am sure that MTV and all those agonizing over this beleive in evolution, yet think this is some horrible event that needs to be prevented in the future.
Properly dosed heroin will not kill you. It is one of the least dangerous of drugs as long as you know what the dose is. Of course, overdoses will kill you as will overdoses of alcohol.
Taxpayers shouldn't pay for anything that there isn't a Constitutional mandate for. Tax payers shouldn't pay for another's drugs (e.g. Medicare), let alone another's heroin.
484 E. Houston St sounds like Alphabet City to me. Not a good part of town...
The only promising future these two were going to have was street prostitution.
It's part of the basic story whenever tragedy strikes young people. Kind of like how the media was fixated on Natalee Holloway's straight-As, scholorship, and pre-med plans for college.
As if people who do really well in school don't do dumb things, or deserve tragedy. (Nobody deserves tragedy, Straight C's or Straight A's)
I know lots of saints and you ask if I am a saint. The answer is yes. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Saviour is a member of the communion of saints. However, I was not using the term "saint" in this context. I meant that their lives were anything but on the road to a promising future. Where were their lives heading? How many other people would they take down with them in the future? When you say, "did they deserve to die", what entails that statement? Actions by individuals lead at times to reprecussions which are not pleasant and, as in this case, death. Who was to blame, the persons who provided the cocaine or the persons who ingested it? Your answer will say a lot about what you believe.
Why does the media always speak of college attendance as if it elevates an individual to a much higher plane of existence? Some pretty dumb people (and even big-time "party girls" like these two) end up in college, at least for a while.
As soon as the heirs figure out who to sue, it looks like a product liability slam-dunk. Johnny Cochran is not available but maybe Peter Angelos could take the case.
Very well said. I prefer street smarts & savvy to book and school smarts any day of the week.
I am blessed in that I have both, I must confess. ;-)
Allow me to transcribe: "Calling for the greasing of the the slope doesn't mean I advocate swimming in sewage"
Well open minded one, draw up the antibiotics and grab yer Freedom Fins!
You pay your money and you take your chances.
Only guarantee in life is there isnt any guarantees
Is that a "yes" ... or are you ducking the question?
I agree. Books smarts are only a way to better take advantage of street smarts (aka common sense). I too have both, but if I had to choose one, I'd take the former.
You can get by with street smarts, are better off with street+book smarts...but you're in a world of hurt if all you have are book smarts. And boy, do I know a lot of those!
Not ducking the question at all.
They either knew the risks or as adults should have.
They rolled the dice and came up losers.
No one's fault except theirs.
Nothing glib about it. Do you support or oppose banning alcohol, under whose influence many have killed others?
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