The state’s appeals court Tuesday affirmed a Hampshire Superior Court judge’s ruling to deny a stay of sentence for a former University of Massachusetts graduate student convicted of manslaughter in the overdose death of a fellow student.
Jesse Carrillo was found guilty in May of involuntary manslaughter and distributing heroin in the death of 20-year-old Eric Sinacori.
Sinacori, of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, was found dead by his father in his apartment at Puffton Village in Amherst on Oct. 4, 2013. He was a third-year kinesiology major at UMass.
On June 1, Carrillo was sentenced by Judge John Agostini to 2½ years in the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction.
Only one year of the incarceration sentence must be served, while the remaining year and a half will be stayed on the drug distribution charge if he complies with the terms of his probation, Agostini ruled. Carrillo was also sentenced to five years probation on the involuntary manslaughter charge, to be served concurrently with five years probation on the distribution charge.
Carrillo was granted a two-week stay of the sentence but then had to report to jail. He has been at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections since mid-June.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.