Johnson seeks no jail time for role in Manhasset woman’s death

Amelia Camurati
Kirsten Cerveny died of a cocaine overdose in October 2015. (Photo via Facebook)

A man who pleaded guilty in March to charges related to the death of a Manhasset woman, Kiersten Cerveny, is seeking no jail time due to the guilt he has suffered.

In a letter filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for Marc Henry Johnson, who pleaded guilty to acting as an accessory to a narcotics crime, claim their client did more than was publicly known for Cerveny as she died from a cocaine overdose in October 2015, including cradling Cerveny’s head, Newsday reported.

“Mr. Johnson tried to save Dr. Cerveny but failed,” the letter to U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said. “He is consumed with guilt that he could not save her and for the role he played in this tragedy.”

Cerveny, a dermatologist who practiced in Williston Park, had been partying with Johnson and another man in Manhattan on the night of Oct. 3, 2015, before she overdosed.

Cerveny became unresponsive and the pair dragged her into the apartment building’s vestibule before Johnson called 911, prosecutors said. Medical examiners found her death was caused in part by a cocaine overdose.

During his trial, Johnson admitted in court that he tried to cover up the fact that James “Pepsi” Holder, whom he and Cerveny were with the night she died, was selling cocaine out of that apartment, Newsday reported.

Johnson also admitted that he moved the body of 38-year-old Cerveny out of the Manhattan apartment into the building’s vestibule where she was found.

Cerveny is survived by a husband and three children, who still live in Manhasset.

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