- A Northampton County judge handed down a five-to-ten-year sentence for Christopher Ferrante, convicted of giving drugs to former Pen Argyl wrestler Michael Racciato shortly before his 2020 overdose death
- Ferrante was acquitted in July of causing Racciato's death by giving him the drugs, a more serious charge
- Ferrante's prosecution became an issue in the Democratic primary race for Northampton County District Attorney earlier this year
EASTON, Pa. – A Northampton County judge sentenced Christopher Ferrante to five to 10 years in state prison Wednesday for providing heroin to Michael Racciato, a former Pen Argyl wrestler, in the hours before his 2020 overdose death.
After a six-day trial and more than four hours of deliberation, a jury acquitted Ferrante in July of causing Racciato’s death. The charge of drug delivery resulting in death carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Ferrante was found guilty on two counts each of drug possession, drug possession with intent to distribute, and criminal use of a communications facility.
The jury’s verdict reflects a finding that Ferrante provided Racciato with drugs on two occasions the day he died, but those drugs did not cause his death.
In handing down Ferrante’s sentence, Judge John Morganelli stayed within the standard range of sentencing prescribed for each charge. Prosecutors asked for a harsher-than-usual sentence; the defense asked for leniency.
Ferrante’s prosecution became a subject of the Democratic primary race for Northampton County District Attorney earlier this year when former county judge Stephen Baratta made attacking incumbent district attorney Terry Houck over the case an important facet of his campaign.
Baratta soundly defeated Houck in the Democratic primary, but Houck successfully claimed the Republican nomination for DA through a write-in campaign. Houck later dropped out of the race, leaving Baratta the presumed next district attorney.
After Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, defense attorney Gary Asteak said Ferrante would appeal his conviction, though he would be represented by public defender Molly Heidorn going forward.
‘I’m sorry that I’m still angry’
“There’s a few things I want to address and apologize for,” Ferrante began his statement to the court. “Mikey [Racciato] was my friend, and I loved Mikey.”
He offered many apologies, often on others’ behalf.
He said he was sorry for “being a bad friend” to Michael Racciato, sorry for becoming a confidential informant for Allentown Police, sorry “that we had to sit through a trial” because the DA’s office didn’t offer him a sentence less than 20 years in a plea deal, sorry “that the Colonial Police could have put a stop to this” if they had arrested Racciato, sorry on behalf of everyone in the courtroom “that we all failed Mikey.”
“I’m sorry that I’m still angry… because I feel like everyone over there knows I didn’t kill Mikey,” Ferrante said, referring to county prosecutors. “They tried me anyway.”
Ferrante also spoke to observers in the gallery. He told Michael Racciato’s mother, Michele, he’d like to talk and could tell her “a few things about [her] son.”
To First Assistant District Attorney Richard Pepper, who prosecuted the case with Deputy District Attorney Patricia Turzyn, Ferrante said “I’m sure you are a good person, and just jaded by your very difficult job.”
Finally, he apologized to his own mother, Marianne Ferrante, who took the stand before him to testify about his character, and got into a heated back-and-forth with Pepper.
‘Mikey was not your friend’
After Asteak finished his defense, prosecutors called Racciato’s parents, Phil and Michele Racciato, to testify.
“Mikey was not your friend. Don’t ever say that,” Phil Racciato said to Ferrante.
“I respect the verdict and we’ll live with it. We have no other choice,” he said. “I know the truth about what happened on Christmas Eve. [Ferrante] was a major contributor to Mikey’s death.”
Phil Racciato recounted calling Ferrante multiple times, begging him to stop selling drugs to Michael, and recalled his son saying his “only shot” to quit was if Ferrante moved out of Pennsylvania.
He described progress his son made toward quitting heroin in the period before his death. He said that Michael saw Ferrante a handful of times during that period, “and overdosed every single time.”
Throughout his testimony, Phil Racciato described the agony of losing his son, at times drawing rebukes from the defense, as Ferrante had been found not guilty of causing Michael’s death.
After Michele Racciato began her testimony by placing a photo of her sons on the witness stand, Asteak protested, and Judge Morganelli intervened.
“Aren’t we treating this as if the jury had convicted Ferrante” of causing Racciato’s death, Morganelli asked. “We’re hearing victim impact, but the impact that’s being described is the loss of their son,” which he could not consider.
Morganelli called a recess so that prosecutors could revise Michele Racciato’s testimony. “Stick to the facts of this case as the jury determined,” he said.
“It’s very nice that he offered to apologize now, but I absolutely cannot accept,” Michele Racciato said when the court returned.
She went on to explain how fentanyl made her son “a totally different person,” and described the strain of his addiction, fed by Ferrante, on their family.
“It was probably the worst time of our lives. It was stressful. We couldn’t sleep at night. Now, we can’t sleep at night because he’s gone,” she said. “If he were still here, we would still try to help him.”
‘The grip of drug addiction’
“It’s just another example of the grip of drug addiction and how far it reaches in our society, to every class of folks,” Morganelli said before delivering his sentence.
“This is a grip that knows no boundaries, and in this case, it’s a tragedy,” ending with one man dead, and another being sentenced.
Morganelli said that Ferrante seemed to believe that because he “gave” Racciato drugs rather than selling them to him, he was less culpable; the law makes no such distinction.
He also questioned whether Ferrante’s many apologies during his statement to the court were genuine, and said many were “cloaked with… outrage against everybody else.”
When assigning a sentence, Morganelli said, he would consider that Ferrante knew about the severity of Racciato’s addiction. He would also adhere to the jury’s finding that Ferrante did not cause Racciato’s death.
“Michael was a vulnerable person, and Mr. Ferrante knew that,” Morganelli said. “It was a drug delivery to a person he knew was highly vulnerable and was fighting addiction.”
“I find that to be egregious conduct.”
