'I Will Never Forgive Him': Loved Ones React To LI Dealer's Sentencing

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“I can still see him sometimes,” she said. “I get choked up. I miss my grandson.”

Olszewski said in a cruel twist of fate, she taught Douglas in the Greenport school district years ago. “I feel sorry for his family, too,” she said. “We’re all suffering. I have faith that justice will be served. It’s just taken so long. It’s three years, this year.”

She hopes that people will learn from that terrible night. “It’s a sad thing that happened,” she said. “My mother died five years ago, and I say to myself, ‘Thank God she did,’ because this would have killed her.”

Her mother used to say, “What is this world coming to?” Olszewski said. “I would say, ‘Oh, Ma, stop.’ But now I have great-grandchildren and I hope it gets better. I’m hoping for a miracle.”

At the 2021 vigil, Olszewski spoke, explaining that Seth was just 27 years old. He, along with others who died, was a member of the Greenport’s hospitality community canvas.

Everyone loved him, she said. “He was like the mayor of Greenport,” she said softly. “He was the life of the party. He didn’t have a bad bone in his body. He had a beautiful spirit.”

Reflecting on his short life, Olszewski said her grandson gave her 27 years of beautiful memories, of joy. “He’s going to live on,” she said. “His spirit is already living on, in all of these people.”

Payne-Markel has started a non-profit organization, The Gold Boots Foundation — named after Seth’s signature gold boots, so beloved he wore them until he needed tape to hold them together — to celebrate his rich life and loving spirit.

Remembering that last day, Payne-Markel, in a past interview, told Patch that she had asked Seth to accompany her to her women’s softball league that night. “He said, ‘I love you, but those games are so boring,'” she said.

Seth opted to go out instead, she said. She texted him when she got home and heard nothing. Then in the morning, when she would normally wake up to a text, still, there was silence. By noon, she sent him a text and hadn’t heard back.

“There was a group chat with people . . Someone said Seth was dead. I was so mad. I said, ‘That’s completely impossible. It’s not true.’ It seemed impossible.”

Later, while she was still at work, Payne-Markel spoke with Seth’s best friend, who told her he was in the hospital.

“I told my boss, ‘I have to go, Seth is in the hospital.’ The whole time, I was thinking that it couldn’t be true, that it wasn’t real,” she said.

When she got to the hospital, she headed to the nurses’ station, where she was told to sit down and wait for a doctor.

“I still had hope,” she said.

But then, Payne-Markel got a text from someone she knew and trusted, telling her the unthinkable. “They said he’d had Narcan in the ambulance and was alive for 30 minutes at the hospital, before he went into cardiac arrest — and died.”

The doctors confirmed the news that changed her life forever. “I just fell to my knees and started screaming,” Payne-Markel said.

Fentanyl, Payne-Markel said, changed everything, creating a deadly scenario people weren’t even aware existed.

Remembering her love, Payne-Markel said,: “Seth Tramontana was thoughtful, open-hearted and a kind soul. If you needed $5 and he only had $4, you would be walking away $4 richer. He was universally loved by anybody that met him. A free spirit whose love for music was instilled in him by his father at a very early age and stayed with him until the day he left this world. He was a unique person — known for his individuality, gentle heart and signature style.”

Douglas pleaded guilty in November, 2023 to conspiring with others to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, more than one kilogram of heroin, more than 280 grams of crack cocaine, more than 40 grams of fentanyl and a quantity of fentanyl analogue (fluorofentanyl), and distribution of cocaine and fluorofentanyl on or about August 12, 2021, which resulted in the overdose deaths of four people, the DOJ said.

“Douglas’s singular contribution to the opioid epidemic on Long Island is horrific, as the drugs he distributed contributed to the deaths of four human beings,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Tuesdady. “Today’s lengthy sentence should serve as a deterrent to those endangering our communities by distributing potentially lethal drugs. It is my hope that holding the defendant accountable for the terrible consequences of his actions will bring a measure of closure to the victims’ families.”

On August 13, 2021, four men were found dead on the East End after using cocaine that had been laced with a fentanyl analogue, the DOJ said. An investigation by the Southold Police Department, the Shelter Island Police Department, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI determined that Douglas was the source of the lethal narcotics, the DOJ said.

In August, 2021, Douglas’ operation distributed a quantity of cocaine laced with a fentanyl analogue in Greenport, the DOJ said. When this product was re-distributed at the street level, it ultimately led to four fatal overdoses on a single day in Greenport and Shelter Island, according to Peace. Douglas had distributed multiple kilograms of cocaine over the years, as well as kilogram level quantities of heroin and large quantities of fentanyl, the DOJ said.

At the time of his arrest in May of 2022, Douglas was found in possession of 105 grams of fentanyl and 135 grams of cocaine, the DOJ said.

Douglas was charged in June 2022., Peace said.

The deadly batch of fentanyl-laced cocaine led to the rash of eight overdoses and six deaths on the North Fork and Shelter Island over eight days in August, 2021, police said at the time.

The community mourned the lost, gathering together at a vigil in Greenport to share memories and tears.

The overdoses led to the creation of Narcan stations in businesses across the North Fork, to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

Peace thanked the Riverhead Police Department,the Southold Police Department, the Shelter Island Police Department and the New York State Police for their assistance with the investigation.

“Marquis Douglas’s unlawful narcotics trafficking operation resulted in the deaths of four individuals on Long Island and posed a significant threat to the welfare of its citizens. His actions fueled an ongoing epidemic by supplying lethal drugs to our community. The FBI is committed to disrupting the flow of these illicit substances in our streets to prevent future unnecessary fatalities,” FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Curtis said.

“This defendant dealt multiple kilograms of various deadly drugs, resulting in four tragic overdose deaths. This underscores why New York State needs to adequately address the opioid overdose epidemic plaguing communities throughout NY state and the country,” Suffolk County District Attorney Tierney said. “Thankfully, the strong collaboration between our office and our federal law enforcement partners allowed this case to be charged federally and provide justice for the families of these victims.”

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