EASTON, Pa. — A Northampton County jury found Christopher Ferrante not guilty of drug delivery resulting in death Tuesday afternoon for providing drugs to former Pen Argyl wrestler Michael Racciato just before his fatal overdose on December 24, 2020.
- Jurors found Christopher Ferrante, of Macungie, not guilty of drug delivery resulting in death in connection with the death of Michael Racciato in 2020
- Ferrante was found guilty on six other charges, including two counts of drug possession with intent to deliver
- The case took on political importance for the District Attorney’s office earlier this year.
Ferrante was found guilty of six other charges: two counts of drug possession, two counts of drug possession with intent to distribute, and two counts of criminal use of a communications facility.
The mixed result shows the jury believed that Ferrante provided drugs to Racciato on two occasions the day he died, but doubted that using those drugs caused his death.
Jurors deliberated for nearly four hours Tuesday before reaching a verdict.
"This was a tough case, and we gave it to the jury for that reason. The evidence showed, and [the jury] agreed with us, that [Ferrante] was the one who delivered to [Racciato] that night on Christmas Eve. It's just a matter of can you connect the dots and say that's why he died."Northampton County Deputy District Attorney Patricia Turzyn
First Deputy District Attorney Richard Pepper and Deputy District Attorney Patricia Turzyn prosecuted the case for the Commonwealth; attorney Gary Asteak defended Ferrante.
"This was a tough case, and we gave it to the jury for that reason," Turzyn said after proceedings ended Tuesday.
"The evidence showed, and [the jury] agreed with us, that [Ferrante] was the one who delivered to [Racciato] that night on Christmas Eve. It's just a matter of can you connect the dots and say that's why he died."
Ferrante’s prosecution took on political importance for District Attorney Terry Houck and his office, after the case became the subject of scrutiny during the primary election for Northampton County DA earlier this year.
Shortly before election day in May, DA candidate Stephen Baratta, a former county judge, predicted the case against Ferrante would be dismissed. Houck remained adamant that his office would secure a conviction on all charges.
"I am thankful for the time and dedication the police and our prosecutors put forth in this case," Houck wrote in a statement Tuesday evening, hailing the trial's outcome as a win.
"Due to their efforts, we removed a dangerous drug dealer’s ability to continue to sell illegal drugs to those in our community, and we consequently protected the lives of anyone else who may have come into contact with the defendant and potentially fallen victim to the substances he was providing."
Ferrante now faces up to six years and eight months in prison, according to the District Attorney's office. His sentencing is scheduled for September.
Closing arguments
Arguments by defense attorney Gary Asteak and Deputy District Attorney Patricia Turzyn Tuesday morning emphasized critical differences between what each side said happened.
The defense conceded Ferrante provided several bags of what he called “heroin” to Racciato hours before his death, but the prosecution and defense differ on just how many bags.
Ferrante told the jury during testimony Monday that he gave Racciato three bags; the prosecution contends he actually gave Racciato five.
Three bags of drugs were found in Racciato’s sock after his death; two similar, empty plastic bags were recovered from his car.
The defense contends the two empty bags — and, therefore, whatever Racciato injected immediately before his death — came from another dealer, and that only the unused drugs in Racciato’s sock came from Ferrante.
The prosecution holds that there was no other dealer — no “dealer on the grassy knoll,” as Turzyn put it, referencing conspiracy theories that a second shooter was responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
If Racciato had easy access to another dealer, she said, he would have used it, instead of imploring Ferrante to come sell to him.
The defense also denies that Ferrante sold Racciato drugs earlier in the afternoon on Dec. 24, 2020, as prosecutors contend. The earlier afternoon attempted deal is the basis for three of the seven charges against Ferrante.
Ferrante testified that Racciato contacted him seeking drugs that afternoon, and that he traveled from Allentown to Nazareth to complete the delivery, but said the two men never found each other.
Prosecutors told the jury evidence shows that, 20 minutes after Racciato and Ferrante spoke on the phone, Racciato was high. Ferrante’s lawyers said those drugs must have come from someone else.
Defense
Asteak began his closing arguments by telling the jury that when they began their deliberations, they should turn to the person next to them and ask two questions: “Where did the methadone come from? Where did the tramadol go?”
He was referencing differences between the contents of drugs recovered from Racciato’s body and the drugs found in his blood: methadone appeared in his blood, but not the unused drugs; tramadol appeared in the recovered drugs, but not his blood.
Asteak told the jury that proves the drugs Racciato used and the ones Ferrante gave him came from different sources.
The prosecution proved his client’s innocence, not guilt, Asteak said.
The prosecution pointed out differences between the contents of the three recovered bags and told the jury dealers’ imprecisions create variation from one bag to another.
“If you want to find Chris guilty, you’re going to have to explain that away,” Asteak told the jury. “What Mikey took, we’ll never know.”
Toward the end of his closing, Asteak recounted to the jury the biblical origin of the word “scapegoat:” in the book of Leviticus, he said, a community casts their sins onto the back of a young goat, and then casts the goat into the desert to carry away the burden of their sins.
He argued that Ferrante, in his trial, served a similar purpose.
“We as a society — all these doctors, all these medical professionals, all these cops who could have done something… family who could have done something — put their sins on the back of the goat,” and cast it away.
“That’s what this courthouse is all about: we blame people… That's what we do here, we find someone to blame," he said. "Don’t make him your scapegoat.”
Prosecution
“How many red flags do you have to pass before you’re held accountable for your actions?” Turzyn began her closing statement for the prosecution.
“The defendant, Christopher Ferrante, passed a lot of red flags.”
She told the jury evidence shows Ferrante sold Racciato five bags of drugs shortly before his death, not three. She leaned heavily on a text message from Ferrante offering him Racciato “five bags” shortly before, as Ferrante testified, gave Racciato drugs and a ride.
Turzyn also recounted forensic evidence she said shows the drugs in Racciato’s blood after he died match the drugs in the three bags Ferrante said he gave him.
While acknowledging the differences from the tested bags and Racciato’s blood, as well as differences between each of the three bags tested, Turzyn focused on what the three bags had in common, according to forensic testing: fentanyl, which tests also found in Racciato’s blood.
She recounted expert testimony that, while a long list of drugs was found in Racciato’s blood, the fentanyl was “a substantial factor” in Racciato’s death.
Turzyn compared the drugs in Racciato blood to an order of steak you might get at a restaurant: There may be vegetables on the plate, but the steak is the main event.
In Turzyn’s analogy, there may have been other drugs in Racciato’s blood, but the fentanyl was the thing that mattered.
“Nothing else was a lethal dose,” she said. “If not for that fentanyl, Mikey… would not be dead.”
