An Ocean City woman pleaded guilty to the drug-related death of a man last year.
Alissa Cunningham, 31, admitted she picked up heroin from a room at the Fox Manor in Atlantic City on June 2, 2017, and gave it to Jessica Downey.
Downey then gave that heroin — stamped "King Kong" — to William Ang,
who died the next day.
Cunningham indicated at her plea Thursday she didn't know that the drugs were laced with fentanyl.
Cunningham also admitted to a drug charge stemming from a raid at that same Fox Manor room a week later. At that time, more of the "King Kong" heroin-fentanyl mix was found.
Cunningham faces four years with a mandatory two years of parole ineligibility for the drug charge. That will be served concurrently with a Cape May County sentence on a drug and bail-jumping conviction she is currently serving at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, Hunterdon County.
Cunningham also faces a 10-year sentence must serve 85 percent for the drug-related death. But that charge will be dismissed at her sentencing under the plea agreement.
It was not clear why that charge would be dropped.
"For what it's worth, I think you made a very, very wise decision," Superior Court Judge Benjamin Podolnick told Cunningham.
She does not plan to be brought from the prison to Atlantic County for her sentencing, scheduled for February. She has asked to be sentenced in absentia, attorney Jim Grimley said, adding that the victim's family may disagree with that.
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