A Connecticut man has been indicted on a drug distribution charge that stems from an investigation into an overdose death in October 2023, according to federal authorities.

Jimmy Lassus, 39, of Wethersfield, is charged with distribution of fentanyl and oxycodone, according to federal authorities, and the office of Connecticut U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery.

Authorities said Lassus appeared this week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson in Hartford and pleaded not guilty.  Lassus has been in custody since his arrest on a federal criminal complaint on April 11, 2024, authorities said

Citing allegations contained in court documents and statements made in court, authorities said Meriden police responded to a home there on a report of a suspected overdose on Oct. 6, 2023 and found a 27-year-old woman unresponsive in a bedroom.

The woman was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead, authorities said. The woman was not identified.

“The investigation revealed that for several months before the victim’s death, the victim engaged in numerous drug-related text message conversations with Lassus,” authorities said in a statement.  The text messages revealed that Lassus allegedly “supplied the victim with oxycodone, and that he supplied her with fentanyl that she ingested in the hours before she died.”

The victim “stated in text messages and in a journal entry that it was her first time using fentanyl,” the statement said.

Federal authorities said the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the victim’s death to be “caused by acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, benzodiazepines, xylazine, and oxycodone.”

The investigation was done by the Drug Enforcement Administration New Haven Task Force and Meriden Police Department, with the assistance of the Wethersfield Police Department.  The Task Force includes members from the DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, Connecticut State Police and the New Haven, Waterbury, East Haven, Branford, West Haven, Ansonia, Meriden, Naugatuck, and Shelton Police Departments.