(Christopher Palamara/Department of Defense)
A married couple who sold counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl to fellow Navy sailors pleaded guilty this week in federal court in San Diego. One sailor who purchased the pills died of an overdose.
Former sailors Bailey Szramowski, 29, and Johnnese Poomaihealani, 25, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, a Justice Department statement said Monday.
They were originally charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and cocaine. Szramowski was also charged with distribution of fentanyl resulting in death.
The husband-and-wife duo, both residents of Hawaii, sold counterfeit oxycodone pills containing the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Court records say Szramowski deployed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, though it is unclear if he was assigned to the carrier. Poomaihealani was a master-at-arms and petty officer third class stationed in San Diego, according to a motion filed by her attorney.
A Lincoln sailor who bought pills from them fatally overdosed, and another was hospitalized. Szramowski also sold drugs while underway on the ship, according to court records.
The Lincoln is on its way back to its homeport of San Diego after a nearly 10-month deployment that included 208 consecutive days at sea and 200 in a combat zone in support of operations in Iran.
The aircraft carrier made headlines in recent months after sailors and their families raised concerns about mental health, the risk of self-harm, the deployment’s length and other quality-of-life issues.
In December 2022, Szramowski provided an active-duty Lincoln sailor, identified in court records by the initials A.N., with 10 supposed oxycodone pills, the statement said.
The sailor died in San Leandro, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2023, of acute fentanyl intoxication.
Ten days afterward, Szramowski sold three of the purported oxycodone pills to a sailor with the initials C.L., who subsequently overdosed, court records state. The sailor was saved after being given Narcan, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses.
Szramowski and Poomaihealani then tried to cover up the crimes by telling C.L. to lie to investigators about who had provided the pills, according to court records.
Authorities said Szramowski also lobbied A.N.’s relatives and former fiance to delete phone messages between the two sailors.
The former fiance told investigators that the couple had disclosed that the pills were laced with fentanyl, but Szramowski said he was not at fault because A.N. had been warned the pills “were different,” court records said.
Szramowski faces up to 40 years in prison, while the maximum possible prison term for Poomaihealani is 20 years, the statement said. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11.
