The father of a Holbrook boy who died of an overdose last year admitted to storing fentanil, heroin and cocaine in the bedroom where his son slept while he declared himself guilty of homicide and other positions on Monday.
Wilkens Adonis, 39, will turn 5 to 15 in a state prison under a guilt agreement offered by the Suffolk County District Prosecutor’s Office. He had faced up to 25 years after bars for a higher position of second -degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
“I assume all the responsibility of everything that happened,” Adonis told the interim judge of the Supolk Supreme Court, Philip Goglas, in Riverhead after entering his plea. “Losing a child is more than anything.”
“I don’t know if I could forgive myself,” he continued, adding that he felt “ashamed.”
In addition to the involuntary homicide, Adonis declared himself guilty of fourth grade criminal possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child, but those sentences would be executed simultaneously to the longest homicide judgment under the terms of the agreement, said District Prosecutor Robert Archer to the judge.
Joseph Adonis, who was 14 months old, died after the police found him unanswered at his home on January 3, 2024, prosecutors said. Within the home, the police found more than an eighth ounce of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, and more than an eighth ounce of cocaine, as well as Alprazolam, which is also known as Xanax, Methadone, drug packing material, scales, an electronic stunning gun, a loaded shotgun and a rifle rifle, the prosecutors said.
In court on Monday, Adonis admitted to having stored drugs in the room where the child slept and said he was involved in the sale of drugs. He also admitted not to ensure weapons in the apartment, where an older son also lived.
“I had a drug problem, obviously there was a problem of substance addiction among other things,” said Adonis’s defense lawyer Matthew Tuohy of Huntington, after the guilt hearing. “He lost his son and really torn it. He spent a difficult time in jail with that. Obviously he loved his son and his family. So he wanted to accept the responsibility of his actions and move forward positively.”
Adonis confirmed in the Court that the child’s mother, Darylee Leibrock, who is also accused in the accusation of 28 charges, found Joseph without answering around 8 that morning and called 911. After the police arrived and saw that the child still did not respond, he was taken by ambulance to the Hospital of the University of Stony Brook, where he was declared dead, the prosecutors said.
Leibrock must return to the Court on Tuesday after declaring himself previously not guilty of the accusation. His lawyer, John Halverson, of Patchogue, said that guilt negotiations are ongoing in his case.
Suffolk County District Prosecutor Ray Tierney said last January that a Suffolk County Forensic Doctor’s office concluded that the cause of the child’s death was an acute poisoning by mixed medications.
Wilkens Adonis has previous convictions for serious crime and minor crime of possession of drugs and attempted assault dating from 2009, prosecutors said. It served more than a year in jail for those crimes.
The father of a Holbrook boy who died of an overdose last year admitted to storing fentanil, heroin and cocaine in the bedroom where his son slept while he declared himself guilty of homicide and other positions on Monday.
Wilkens Adonis, 39, will turn 5 to 15 in a state prison under a guilt agreement offered by the Suffolk County District Prosecutor’s Office. He had faced up to 25 years after bars for a higher position of second -degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
“I assume all the responsibility of everything that happened,” Adonis told the interim judge of the Supolk Supreme Court, Philip Goglas, in Riverhead after entering his plea. “Losing a child is more than anything.”
“I don’t know if I could forgive myself,” he continued, adding that he felt “ashamed.”
In addition to the involuntary homicide, Adonis declared himself guilty of fourth grade criminal possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child, but those sentences would be executed simultaneously to the longest homicide judgment under the terms of the agreement, said District Prosecutor Robert Archer to the judge.
Joseph Adonis, who was 14 months old, died after the police found him unanswered at his home on January 3, 2024, prosecutors said. Within the home, the police found more than an eighth ounce of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, and more than an eighth ounce of cocaine, as well as Alprazolam, which is also known as Xanax, Methadone, drug packing material, scales, an electronic stunning gun, a loaded shotgun and a rifle rifle, the prosecutors said.
In court on Monday, Adonis admitted to having stored drugs in the room where the child slept and said he was involved in the sale of drugs. He also admitted not to ensure weapons in the apartment, where an older son also lived.
“I had a drug problem, obviously there was a problem of substance addiction among other things,” said Adonis’s defense lawyer Matthew Tuohy of Huntington, after the guilt hearing. “He lost his son and really torn it. He spent a difficult time in jail with that. Obviously he loved his son and his family. So he wanted to accept the responsibility of his actions and move forward positively.”
Adonis confirmed in the Court that the child’s mother, Darylee Leibrock, who is also accused in the accusation of 28 charges, found Joseph without answering around 8 that morning and called 911. After the police arrived and saw that the child still did not respond, he was taken by ambulance to the Hospital of the University of Stony Brook, where he was declared dead, the prosecutors said.
Leibrock must return to the Court on Tuesday after declaring himself previously not guilty of the accusation. His lawyer, John Halverson, of Patchogue, said that guilt negotiations are ongoing in his case.
Suffolk County District Prosecutor Ray Tierney said last January that a Suffolk County Forensic Doctor’s office concluded that the cause of the child’s death was an acute poisoning by mixed medications.
Wilkens Adonis has previous convictions for serious crime and minor crime of possession of drugs and attempted assault dating from 2009, prosecutors said. It served more than a year in jail for those crimes.
