A convicted felon who played a role in the sale of a deadly dose of fentanyl-laced heroin to transgender activist Cecilia Gentili took a plea deal Monday and faces the prospect of decades in federal prison.
Michael Kuilan, 45, pleaded guilty to federal drug distribution and gun possession charges in Brooklyn Federal Court for his role in the 52-year-old advocate, author and actor’s death on Feb. 6.
Kuilan, of Brooklyn supplied the deadly drugs to dealer Antonio Venti, 52, who in turn sold it to Gentili the day before her death. Venti took a plea deal on July 18, and is set to be sentenced in October.
“The perpetrators of the tragic poisoning of Cecilia Gentili, a prominent leader of the New York transgender community, have now both admitted their guilt in selling the lethal drugs that have caused this heartbreaking death,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Monday.
As part of their deals, both men admitted that their product caused Gentili’s death, prosecutors said Monday. Kulian, who served time for drug-related felonies in 2002 and 2005, also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
“I was in possession of a controlled substance and also of a firearm, which was in my residence, where I lived,” Kuilan told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Brian Cogan Monday. “And also, I sold the actual drugs to someone.”
Kuilan could face a maximum 35 years behind bars when he’s sentenced on Jan. 22, but based on federal sentencing guidelines he’s more likely to get between 22 and 27 years.
He declined comment as he left the courtroom Monday.
As an activist, Gentili lobbied for the passage of the New York State Gender Expression and Discrimination Act, which became law in 2019. She was also an actress on the critically acclaimed television show “Pose.”
Gentili founded Trans Equity Consulting, a New York City-based firm that offers guidance to the LGBTQ community and has a healthcare clinic at Callen Lorde, a center for LGBTQ+ healthcare. Previously, she was director of policy at Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
Her Feb. 15 funeral was held at Manhattan’s venerable St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but the ceremony drew backlash and was denounced by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who decried the “the irreverence and the disrespect” of the mourners and requested a rare Mass of Reparation to pray for forgiveness.
Gentili’s family called the Church’s reaction “sanctimonious” and said the funeral brought “precious life and radical joy to the Cathedral in historic defiance of the Church’s hypocrisy and anti-trans hatred.