Rayshaun “Nova ” Ducos, 27, was charged Jan. 27, 2023, with one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. (Wikicommons)
(TNS) A Waikiki man who sold cocaine to an active-duty and died on Jan. 23, 2023, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in federal prison.
Rayshaun “Nova ” Ducos, 27, was charged Jan. 27, 2023, with one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
He entered into a plea agreement with the U.S.
Department of Justice on Dec. 11, pleaded guilty and agreed to serve eight to 14 years in federal prison.
He admitted, as part of the agreement with prosecutors, that he sold cocaine to Marine Cpl. Adell Anderson. Anderson died of “cocaine toxicity, ” according to the city Department of the Medical Examiner, after using the drugs he received from Ducos.
Ducos has been in custody at the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu, since his arrest.
On Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright sentenced Ducos to 84 months in prison for selling cocaine and 60 months for the gun charge to run consecutively, according to federal court records. After he gets out of federal prison, Ducos will serve five years of federal supervised release.
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Anderson’s widow, in a March 29 letter to Seabright, wrote that her “heart is shattered by the loss of the man I envisioned building a life with ; we were robbed of the simple joys of starting a family, exploring new places, and growing old together.”
Adell Anderson was not “just my partner but my best friend, ” and the circumstances of his death from a cocaine overdose, linked to “drugs sold by Rayshaun Ducos, have left an irreversible void in my life.”
“The dreams we shared have been stripped away, replaced by grief and confusion, and the pain of unrealized potential haunts me every day, ” wrote Anderson’s widow, identified as “CA ” in the sentencing memorandum. “I want the impact of this tragedy to resonate deeply, so others may understand the profound loss and the ripple effects of such choices—our lives were forever changed, and I am left to navigate a future without him, carrying the weight of our unfulfilled dreams.”
In exchange for his guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed not to charge him with the fatal transaction with Anderson, a Hawaii-based Marine with the 3rd Marine Division.
Anderson bought cocaine from Ducos on Jan. 22, 2023, and on five other occasions totaling $5, 100, according to federal court records.
Ducos, a former hip-hop dancer from Brooklyn, N.Y., who worked with Cardi B, Lil Kim and Donnell Raw lings, said he knew how it felt to lose a loved one to a drug overdose. He turned to drug dealing after becoming a young father while working as a street dancer in Waikiki when the pandemic hit in 2020, according to federal court records.
“If I could just switch places with … Adell Anderson I would do it in a heart beat, ” Ducos wrote to Seabright on March 28. “I spent months in denial hoping that I didn’t contribute to Adell (’s ) loss of life. When I found out the truth I was heartbroken. I want to atone for my mistakes … by starting that process by apologizing with every fiber in me to Adell’s family and loved ones for my selfish actions.”
On Jan. 23, 2023, Naval Criminal Investigative Serv ice agents went to a home on Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe in response to a call about a man who may have overdosed. Anderson was taken to the Adventist Health Castle hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3 :09 a.m., according to the federal court records.
“This case demonstrates that drug trafficking is not a victimless crime, ” acting U.S. Attorney Kenneth M. Sorenson said in a statement. “A young man is dead because of Mr. Ducos’s actions. Selling drugs endangers lives. Doing so while armed makes an already deadly trade even more dangerous and puts the general public at significant risk from the violence that is endemic to the illegal drug trade. We will prosecute armed drug dealers aggressively because there is no place for them in Hawaii.”
On the day Anderson died, a witness told investigators, Anderson bought cocaine from a Waikiki dealer with the nickname “Nova.”
The night he died, Anderson snorted “two to three lines, ” the witness told federal agents. The witness said he knew the name “Nova ” because Anderson had bought cocaine from him near an Ala Wai Boulevard address on previous occasions.
On Jan. 30, 2023, at about 7 :35 a.m., DEA agents searched Ducos’ Ala Wai Boulevard apartment. Ducos admitted to trying to flush cocaine down his toilet when he heard the federal agents knock and announce their presence.
During a search of Ducos’ bedroom, federal agents found $30, 829 in U.S. currency in a nightstand by the bed, a scale with white powder residue and “numerous baggies in a dresser near the bed.”
In a backpack in the bedroom, Ducos stashed a ghost gun, a 5.56mm AR Pistol bearing no markings, broken down into two parts, along with a drum magazine. He also was found with a privately made 9mm handgun. Investigators seized 295 rounds of “assorted ammunition ” from his Waikiki apartment.
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