Woman Arrested in Connection to Robert De Niro’s Grandson Leandro’s Death

Police have arrested a woman believed to be the suspect tied to Robert De Niro’s grandson’s overdose death. According to TMZ, a 20-year-old woman has reportedly been taken into custody over Leandro De Niro Rodriguez’s passing. Police believe the woman sold drugs to Rodriguez that led to the alleged overdose of fentanyl.

The 19-year-old was found dead on July 2. Moviegoers likely saw him appear in A Star is Born, playing the son of Dave Chappelle’s character from Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated film. Police confirmed to the outlet that they’re investigating the death as an overdose and noted that drugs and drug paraphernalia were discovered near his body at the home he was house-sitting.

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TMZ added that no official cause of death has been reported, but his mother Drena De Niro confirmed the news in a reply on social media. “Someone sold him fentanyl laced pills that they knee were laced yet still sold them to him,” she wrote. “So for all these people still f-ing around selling and buying this s— my son is gone forever.”

The suspect, Sophia Haley Marks, now faces charges including one count of “distributing and possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl and alprazolam” and “two counts of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl,” according to ABC News. Each of the counts carries a maximum 20-year sentence.

“Last night, my Office, the Southern District of New York, authorized the arrest of Sophia Marks in connection with her distribution of fake oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “At least one of Marks’s counterfeit pills was purchased and taken by a teenager who subsequently died of a suspected overdose. The arrest was critical because, as we allege, Marks knew the pills could kill, and she continued selling them anyway.”

Robert De Niro attended his grandson’s funeral earlier in the week but fought back some of that sadness with the news he welcomed his seventh child. De Niro spoke with ET Canada about the new addition and his role as a dad at age 79.

“I mean, there’s no way around it with kids. I don’t like to have to lay down the law and stuff like that. But, [sometimes] you just have no choice,” he said. “And any parent, I think, would say the same thing. You always want to do the right thing by the children and give them the benefit of the doubt but sometimes you can’t.”