A heroin dealer who provided the drug that caused the overdose death of a Milwaukie boy was convicted Thursday of violating the federal "Len Bias law," which allows prosecutors to seek long prison terms for those who supply illegal drugs that result in fatalities.
Aleksey Alexandrovich Dzyuba, was found guilty of distributing heroin to Toviy Sinyayev and on the "Len Bias" charge -- which carries a penalty of 20 years to life in prison.
The federal law helps prosecutors build cases against those against those at the center of drug-distribution rings. Usually, small-time dealers cooperate, but Dzyuba decided to take his chances before a judge.
Of the 45 people in Oregon charged under the Len Bias law, Dzyuba is the first one to go to trial. He will be sentenced on April 2.
Dzyuba maintained that the heroin that killed Sinyayev came from another source.
Senior U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones concluded that Dyzuba's claim was implausible.
"It is not a reasonable inference from the evidence that a 17-year-old heroin addict, already in possession of a balloon of heroin, with no money to purchase additional heroin, would leave home to acquire more heroin," Jones said in his findings. "There is no evidence of record as to any alternative source of heroin, merely speculation, which is not sufficient to establish reasonable doubt."
Sinyayev had been using heroin since January 2011, when he was arrested for shoplifting and was found to be in possession of a syringe. He was either in custody or under house arrest until three weeks before he overdosed.
The night before Toviy overdosed, he and one of his sisters met with Dzyuba. The teens agreed to return stolen merchandise to stores and give Dzyuba the proceeds. He paid them with heroin.
Toviy lingered in a coma two days before dying. During that time, his sister, Elena, acted as an undercover agent, purchasing heroin from Dzyuba in a transaction monitored by Milwaukie police.