A man charged in the drug-related death of Wire actor Michael K Williams has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Prosecutors sought a four-year term for Carlos Macci but the actor’s nephew and show’s co-creator asked for leniency.

Macci, 72, one of four men charged with selling Williams heroin laced with fentanyl, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute narcotics in April.

Williams, who starred as robber Omar Little in the HBO crime drama, died of an overdose aged 54 in 2021.

The three other men have been charged with directly causing Williams’ death and face harsher sentences.

One of them, Irvin Cartagena, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and will be sentenced in August. Two others have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors wrote in court papers that “for decades the defendant has been selling deadly narcotics: heroin and now heroin laced with fentanyl”.

Sentencing judge Ronnie Abrams told Macci that selling the drugs “not only cost Mr Williams his life, but it’s costing your freedom”, the Associated Press news agency reported.

But it is thought that Macci may have avoided a tougher sentence in part because of a three-page letter filed earlier this month.

In it Wire co-creator David Simon asked for mercy for the defendant because Williams “believed in redemption”.

“No possible good can come from incarcerating a… soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction,” the letter said.

Mr Simon added that Williams himself “would have fought” for Macci.

Williams’ nephew Dominic Dupont also told the judge he thought Macci could turn his life around, adding that it “weighs heavy on me” to see someone in that situation.

As overdose deaths in the US continue to rise, some prosecutors have charged victims’ friends who helped obtain such drugs, as well as the dealers. Several states have passed laws in recent years allowing prosecutors to charge overdoses as homicides in an effort to discourage people from selling or sharing fentanyl.

Williams, who talked openly about his struggles with addiction, won critical acclaim for his role in The Wire, a series that ran from 2002-08 and explored the narcotics scene in Baltimore from the perspective of law enforcement as well as drug dealers and users.

Prosecutors say that on 5 September 2021, Macci and other members of a drug-trafficking organisation sold Williams heroin laced with fentanyl and continued to sell the substance even after they knew the actor had suffered a fatal overdose.