Lake Katrine man rejects plea deal in drug death of his 14-year-old Kingston daughter
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> The father of a 14-year-old girl accused along with his partner of providing the drugs, alcohol and fentanyl that led to his daughter’s death rejected a deal in Ulster County Court Wednesday that would have seen him get the maximum sentence allowed under law in exchange for pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Instead, Collin L. Schlegel, 34, of Lake Katrine, will stand trial in July for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, criminal sale of a controlled substance (two counts), criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child, and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection to the death of Schlegel’s biological daughter, Hailey Hasbrouck.
Schlegl appeared in a brief proceeding before Ulster County Judge Bryan Rounds during which Senior Assistant District Attorney Tara Waters said it would recommend a sentence of 5-to-15 years in state prison if Schlegel pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Conflict Defender Jason Richland, who is representing Schlegel, said it was his client’s intent “not to take that” deal.
Waters said in response to questions by Ulster County Judge Bryan Rounds that if Schlegel was convicted on every count of the indictment the sentences would run concurrently, or at the same time, meaning that Schlegel could not serve more time than the 5-to-15year sentence proposed by prosecutors.
Authorities have said that on Aug. 2, 2022, Schlegel’s daughter and another child were at the Lake Katrine home Schlegel shared with his partner, Kristin Delsanto, when the town of Ulster police received a 911 call from the other child reporting an “unconscious, unresponsive” 14-year-old girl they later learned was Hailey.
Ulster County District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji, who at the time was an assistant district attorney, at the time said that responding officers “had reason to believe the child was suffering from a drug overdose” but that attempts to revive her using Narcan were unsuccessful and Hailey was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities have said that Hailey lived with her mother and was visiting her father and Delsanto when she overdosed.
Following a year-long investigation, detectives from the Ulster Police Department created a timeline of events leading up to the child’s death and concluded that both Schlegel and Delsanto “were aware of and contributed to Schlegel’s 14-year-old daughters’ consumption of drugs, alcohol, and fentanyl, which subsequently caused her death.
Schlegel and Delsanto, who faces the same charges as Schlegel, are being held in Ulster County Jail without bail.
Delsanto is due back in court at 2 p.m. on Jan. 24.
Jury selection for Schlegel will begin at 9:30 a.m. on July 15.