Two Queens Men Plead Not Guilty in Federal Case Over FIT Student's Fentanyl Death

Two young men from Queens pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges after a Fashion Institute of Technology student died in a Manhattan dorm room.

Moises Freire, 19, and Brian Peralta, 18, are charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance resulting in death, according to court records. Freire faces an additional count of distributing a controlled substance with the intent to commit rape. A federal indictment was recently unsealed.

Everything below about what happened in that room is an allegation from that indictment. Neither man has been convicted.

What prosecutors allege

Annabel Richter, 20, died after she ingested a drug the indictment says the men supplied. Prosecutors allege she was told it was cocaine. It was fentanyl, according to the charges.

Richter had moved from Brazil to study at FIT, according to the New York Post. She was found unresponsive in a dorm room along with a second woman.

The second woman sustained what the indictment calls "serious bodily injury." She regained consciousness after receiving life-saving care at a hospital.

The indictment also makes allegations specific to Freire. It says he raped one of the victims and "waited approximately 45 minutes to contact campus security" about her being unconscious. It further alleges he texted friends photos of an unconscious victim who was "naked below the waist."

Both defendants entered not guilty pleas. The pleas mean prosecutors must prove each count in court.

The school's response

FIT President Jason Schupbach issued a statement thanking campus responders and law enforcement. "We are thankful to our teams from Public Safety and Residential Life for their immediate response in March, and also to the Department of Justice and the NYPD for their actions in March and their continued focus on this case," he said. "As a community, we continue to support each other through difficult times."

A warning to parents, and a media complaint

Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor, used the case to urge parents to talk to their children before college. "If you're sending a kid off to college these days, you better sit that child down and give that child a hard primer on what could possibly happen," he said. He added: "There is a panoply of drugs out there that will destroy your kids."

Mauro also questioned why the case drew so little media attention. His explanation was his own speculation. "The only thing I can conjure is that it happened in New York City, and so the powers that be as we come into an election season would rather these rape stories or these campus crime stories occur someplace far from New York," he said. No evidence of any such coordination has been offered.

The federal charge of distribution resulting in death reflects the danger the case describes: a person who is told a drug is cocaine can ingest fentanyl without knowing it.

Ole Miss deaths under investigation

Campus drug deaths have also been reported in Mississippi. University of Mississippi students Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20, were found dead of suspected drug overdoses in September.

Federal prosecutors and local authorities launched investigations. Investigators recovered packages of kratom-related products at both scenes, and the discovery prompted federal charges against a vape shop clerk and his son for illicitly selling banned compounds disguised in retail packaging.

The New York and Mississippi cases are separate. They share a setting, a college campus, and a pattern in which young adults died or were hospitalized after drug use in or near student housing.

What comes next

The Freire and Peralta case now proceeds in federal court.

The outcome will turn on whether prosecutors can prove the men supplied the drug that killed Richter and, in Freire's case, that he distributed it with the intent alleged. The defendants are presumed innocent until a court rules otherwise.