Update on Waterfront Plaza shooting:  State’s Attorney says 13,000 milligrams of fentanyl found 

by Joseph Gresser

After taking advantage of the 24-hour period allowed to consult with a lawyer, Michael Alamo Jr., 23, of Hartford, Connecticut, returned to Orleans Superior Court via an Internet link from Northern State Correctional Facility to answer the charges filed against him.  He discovered a new one had been added to the earlier three unlawful restraint charges, this one the more serious offense of selling fentanyl.

Orleans County State’s Attorney Jennifer Barrett told Judge Gregory Rainville that a search, authorized by a warrant, turned up 13,000 milligrams of fentanyl in Mr. Alamo’s bags and in the car in which he had been riding.

Judge Rainville, in ordering Mr. Alamo held without bail until a weight-of-evidence hearing can be held, said, “the amount of fentanyl in the possession that’s been alleged here of Mr. Alamo Jr. is extraordinary, especially for this area.”

Fentanyl, an artificial opiate, is many times more potent than heroin and as little as three milligrams can be lethal.

Mr. Alamo came to police attention Monday after a man was shot in the leg while in a car parked in the lot at Newport’s Waterfront Plaza.

Police affidavits place Mr. Alamo in the front seat of the white Chevy Malibu.  The victim, Newport Patrolman Royce Lancaster said, was seated in the back seat with two other men when he was shot.

According to affidavits filed in the case, Mr. Alamo, along with Jaquan Flintroy, 26, of Hartford, Connecticut, and a third man went to an apartment on West Main Street where the wounded man had a room.  They briefly held three people at gunpoint while they searched the apartment, then departed, the affidavits say.

Police say Mr. Alamo headed off in the Malibu with a friend from Hartford, 23-year-old Wilfredo Cerpa, at the wheel.  Both were arrested in Orleans after a high-speed chase.

Mr. Cerpa made bail of $100,000 after pleading innocent to negligent driving while eluding an officer, driving at excessive speed, and being an accessory after the fact to a felony.

Police say Mr. Flintroy led Sheriff’s deputies, State Police troopers, and Newport Police officers on a 100-mile-an-hour chase from Newport Center to Troy and back to the outskirts of Newport before his car hit a spike strip and crashed.

He fled the scene, according to police affidavits, and is believed to have escaped in a stolen Subaru Legacy.  Mr. Flintroy is armed, and police say he is very dangerous. 

An arrest warrant for attempted second-degree murder has been issued.