HAVE MERCY

‘Wire’ Creator David Simon: Don’t Jail Man Over Michael K. Williams’ Death

Four people pleaded guilty to charges in connection with Michael K. Williams’ fatal overdose.

The co-creator of The Wire has asked a judge not to incarcerate a man who was charged in connection with the deadly fentanyl overdose of the show’s star Michael K. Williams. David Simon, a former Baltimore journalist who later created the hit HBO series about the city’s drug trade, wrote to a judge asking for leniency for Carlos Macci, 71, who pleaded guilty in April to narcotics conspiracy in the wake of Williams’ death at the age of 54 in 2021. The three-page letter to Manhattan Judge Ronnie Abrams said Williams, who played Omar Little on the show, always said he was responsible for his own drug use. “What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy,” Simon wrote. “But I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty: First, that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened.” The second, Simon wrote, is that “No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction.” Macci and three others who pleaded guilty to charges in connection with Williams’ death will be sentenced later this month.