[R]UTLAND — A Poultney man who is facing state charges for allegedly hiding the body of a woman who died of a drug overdose has been sentenced to two years in prison on federal charges of allowing out-of-state drug dealers to stay at his residence.
Judge Geoffrey Crawford imposed the prison term on Wayne Oddo, 54, at a hearing Tuesday in federal court in Rutland.
Two state felony charges remain pending against Oddo: impeding a police investigation and unauthorized burial or removal of a dead body. Oddo has pleaded not guilty to those offenses.
Earlier this year, Oddo pleaded guilty in federal court to breaking a law often referred to as the “crack-house” statute. That law prohibits making available a place, such as a residence, for the purpose of manufacturing, storing, distributing, or using any controlled substance.
The sentencing on that charge Tuesday comes more than a year after police found the body of Alexandra Rooker, 26, of Fair Haven, in a shed on his property on Morse Hollow Road in Poultney.
Rooker’s cause of death was given as acute mixed intoxication, with three drugs found in her system: morphine, methamphetamine and hydromorphone, according to a state death certificate. No one has been charged directly in connection with her death.
That wasn’t the first time a dead body had been found on Oddo’s property in Poultney.
In September 2016, a New York state man, Frederick J. Weitzman, 54, also died at Oddo’s property. A state death certificate lists the death as caused by ongoing medical conditions along with “acute heroin intoxication” a contributing factor.
Though Oddo has not been charged with causing either death, references were repeatedly made to both during the sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Crawford, moments before handed down the two-year prison term, spoke of how Oddo’s action in allowing his home to serve as a “base” for out-of-state drug sellers helped to “facilitate” their operation of dispensing drugs into the community.
“This was a very serious offense,” the judge said, adding, “Two people died in his home of drug overdoses.”
Oddo was initially charged with federal offenses in March 2017, when police said they found Rooker’s body in his shed.
An autopsy revealed no sign of trauma, and she may have been dead a week before police found her on March 15, 2017, according to court filings.
Rooker was reported missing March 8, 2017, by family members who said they hadn’t heard from her for several days. She reportedly was last seen March 3, when a friend dropped her off at Oddo’s home on Morse Hollow Road, prosecutors said.
According to court records, Oddo had initially told police when they were searching for Rooker that she had been at his property but was no longer there. Later, when police arrived with a warrant, Oddo told them they could find her body in the shed, court records stated.
After police found Rooker’s body, Oddo told authorities that he let others use his home as a base as they dealt drugs in Rutland and other nearby towns, according to court records.
Oddo said they would stay at his home and in exchange provide him drugs, according to court filings.
“Oddo advised that he knew it was illegal to allow individuals to stay at his residence and sell illegal narcotics but he did it anyway because he was trying to help people,” court records stated.
Police also seized several firearms from Oddo’s home, including an AK-47 and a .22-caliber Ruger rifle, according to court records.
Several other people have also been charged in connection with the drug-dealing operation, including two men referred to by authorities as the “Jersey Boys.”
Richard “Scoob” Torruellas and Francesco “Brisco” Escribano, both of Jersey City, New Jersey, were each sentenced earlier this year to 54 months in prison. Charges against others remain pending.
Steven Barth, a public defender representing Oddo, had argued in court Tuesday for a sentence of time served for his client. Oddo has already spent about 10 months behind bars.
Barth said his client’s actions were clouded by his own drug addiction combined with mental illness, including severe depression.
The defense attorney said Oddo’s role in the drug operation was “minimal,” adding that he was “preyed upon” by those dealing drugs and allowed them to stay at his residence for only a few months leading up to his arrest.
“It is notable, that the vast majority of the distribution of narcotics took place outside the residence in Rutland and the surrounding areas,” Barth wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“Moreover, the drug dealers stayed at other residences,” Barth added. “Mr. Oddo let others stay at his residence because after decades of marriage and family life, he was alone and the drug dealers took advantage of Mr. Oddo’s increasing addiction to opiates.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Perella, the prosecutor, argued during the hearing for a longer prison term of 30 months for Oddo.
‘It is astonishing that over a six-month period there were two drug-related deaths at his residence and, in both instances, the defendants appeared to lack the basic decency to notify law enforcement,” Perella said.
“Most people, even those battling the demons of addiction, know instinctively there is a line below which it is simply immoral to descend,” the prosecutor added. “Hiding the body of a deceased person falls well below that line. The defendant appears to have had no qualms about descending to that dark place.”
In addressing the judge before the sentence was imposed, Oddo apologized to the court, and to the Rooker family, who sat in courtroom benches only about 15 feet behind him.
“I am so sorry how this all turned out,” said Oddo, shaking considerably as he spoke. “I was in a dark, dark place.”
He added, “I pray for the Rooker family every day.”
Nancy Rooker, Alexandra Rooker’s mother, also addressed the judge. She spoke, at times through tears, of her daughter as a person whose smile would lighten up a room, and who cared deeply about her friends and family.
The mother said he wished Oddo would have called 911 as soon as he realized that her daughter had overdosed, which may have allowed the family “to possibly hold her one last time.”
Nancy Rooker added of her daughter, “She deserved better in the end than how she was treated.”
The mother said the last text message she received from her daughter talked about how she wanted to turn her life around away from drugs and that she was ready for a change.
“I just miss her big smile,” Nancy Rooker said of her daughter. “I miss everything about her.”
