Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on March 18 that Wilkens Adonis, age 39, of Holbrook, pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the Second Degree for his role in the fatal overdose of his 14-month-old son Joseph Adonis.
“The death of Joseph Adonis represents one of the most heartbreaking cases our office has ever handled,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Because of this defendant’s extreme recklessness here, we were able to charge him with manslaughter. In most cases like these, we cannot charge manslaughter or murder and that’s why we need the New York Legislature to pass Chelsey’s Law.”
According to court documents and the defendant’s admissions during his guilty plea allocution, on January 3, 2024, Suffolk County Police responded to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive child at a residence in Holbrook. When they arrived, law enforcement found Adonis and his girlfriend’s 14-month-old son unresponsive in the couple’s bedroom. The toddler was taken via ambulance to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
When Suffolk County Homicide Squad detectives responded to the home to investigate, they found narcotics and drug paraphernalia in the bedroom where the child had been found. As a result, members of the Suffolk County Narcotics Section were called to assist with the investigation.
A search warrant of the apartment was executed, and law enforcement found over one-eighth ounce of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, over one-eighth ounce of cocaine, alprazolam, methadone, drug packaging materials, digital scales, an electronic stun gun, a loaded shotgun, and a rifle; all of which were unsecured and easily accessible to the defendants’ children.
After conducting an autopsy, the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the child’s cause of death was acute mixed drug intoxication by a mixture of heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl.
On March 17, 2024, Adonis pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the Second Degree, a Class C felony, Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Fourth Degree, a Class C felony, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanor, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Philip Goglas. Adonis faces the maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison. Adonis is due back in court on April 17, 2025, and he is being represented by Matthew Tuohy, Esq
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Robert Archer of the Narcotics Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Detectives James Melchiona and Christopher Gleason of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Narcotics Section, Detectives Guido Cirenza and Michael Repperger of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad, and Investigator Scott Reilly and Senior Investigator David Ferreby of the New York State Police.
