Smoronk got MDC Brooklyn: not for the faint of heart, even by prison standards

MDC Brooklyn federal prison (Courtesy); inset Dean Smoronk (Va State Police photo)

Convicted Farmington drug dealer Dean Smoronk is in the midst of a couple of years stint at one of the most maligned federal prisons in the country, MDC Brooklyn, infamous for its crumbling infrastructure, hard-boiled guards and its housing of some of the nation's most notorious bad guys.

Rapper R. Kelly, accused of having sex with minors and possession of child porn, is there awaiting trial. Alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind Abid Naseer is spending 40 years there. And former inmates include disgraced drug mogul and convicted fraudster Marin Shkreli and current MSNBC host Al Sharpton, who spent 90 days there in the early 2000s for trespassing on federal land during a protest in Puerto Rico.

Smoronk, who was convicted in his college days for trafficking LSD at the University of Southern Illinois and in Virginia in July 2017 for trafficking drugs, got his most recent conviction last year. In December he was sentenced to 42 months for trafficking methamphetamine, pinched by DEA agents after he tried to pick up a package in Lebanon, Maine, shipped to him by an associate in California.

Smoronk, whose 979 Meaderboro Road home was the site of a double murder in January 2017, was indicted in the meth trafficking case on Jan. 9, 2019.

Killed in the double stabbing deaths were Smoronk's longtime girlfriend, Christine Sullivan, 48; and an acquaintance of hers, Jenna Pellegrini, 32, of Barrington, who were both killed early the morning of Jan. 27, 2017, police say.

Autopsies revealed Sullivan had a fractured skull and was stabbed in the neck and lungs, while Pellegrini had been stabbed in the neck, torso and back 43 times.

Timothy Verrill, 36, of Dover, the man accused in the deaths of Sullivan and Pellegrini and a longtime Smoronk acquaintance, is expected to have his second murder trial this summer after his October trial ended in a mistrial over evidentiary discovery issues.

Smoronk has never been implicated in the murders, but defense lawyers in October sought to portray him as orchestrating the killings if not actively taking part.

MDC Brooklyn, meanwhile came under severe scrutiny in January 2019 when the prison lost power during that year's polar vortex when temps plummeted into the single digits and the facility was without proper heating for about a week.

Inmates told family members temperatures in the prison were near freezing and the toilets in their cells didn't work because of the electricity issues. Others said it was done deliberately by guards in retaliation for prisoners talking about the prison's woes to families and the press.

According to a February 2019 story in the online Huffington Post, "MDC Brooklyn notoriously offers few amenities to inmates. There are few, if any, classes or recreational activities and detainees do not have access to an outdoor space. Some areas have mesh grates above a 10-foot or so wall to allow inmates access to fresh air - the same cage-like spaces where inmates were seen begging for help last week."

Smoronk's sentencing guidelines in the meth case called for a minimum five year sentence with a maximum of 40 years, but due to the sentencing reform from the recently passed First Step Act, it was reduced to 42 months.

Personnel from the Designation Sentence and Computation Center in Texas told The Rochester Voice on Monday that Smoronk is eligible for 54 "good time" days a year, for a total of 180 over the 42-month sentence. Combined with time served, Smoronk could be out as soon as December of 2021.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Hampshire, which prosecuted the case, refused all comment for this story.

Smoronk's defense attorney, Bruce E. Kenna, also did not return a phone call for comment.