Relatives of three men killed during a months-long drugging and robbery pattern addressed the court before Tabitha Bundrick was sentenced.
NEW YORK — Family members of three men killed after being given fentanyl-laced drugs during a series of Manhattan robberies returned to court Tuesday as Tabitha Bundrick was sentenced to 27 years to life in state prison.
The sentencing brought the state case against Bundrick, 39, to a close more than three years after the first death and followed her Sept. 8 guilty plea to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree assault. Mario Paullan, 42; Miguel Navez, 39; and Abrihan Fernandez, 34, died after encounters with Bundrick between April 2023 and February 2024. A fourth man survived.
Prosecutors said the cases were connected by a repeated method: Bundrick gave men drugs containing fentanyl, waited until they were unconscious and took their property. The stolen items included phones, cash, watches, clothes and shoes. The encounters took place in Washington Heights and Upper Manhattan, often inside apartments where the victims believed they were taking another drug or otherwise did not know they were being given fentanyl.
Paullan died after an April 30, 2023, encounter on West 159th Street. Bundrick approached Paullan and another man on the street and eventually led them to an empty apartment, according to prosecutors. She provided drugs that she said were cocaine. The other man woke the following morning with no memory of much of the night and found Paullan dead beside him. Their belongings, including a cellphone, had been taken.
Navez encountered Bundrick about five months later. Prosecutors said the two went to his apartment on West 158th Street on Sept. 27, 2023, where Bundrick gave him fentanyl-laced drugs. Navez’s brother found him dead on Sept. 30. Personal belongings were missing from the apartment, and prosecutors said Bundrick used Navez’s stolen phone afterward.
Fernandez died after meeting Bundrick on Feb. 25, 2024. Prosecutors said she followed him toward his West 144th Street apartment building and spoke with him before they went upstairs. She later left the building carrying bags from his apartment, including his backpack. Fernandez’s credit card was used multiple times during the following days. Investigators searching Bundrick’s home after her arrest recovered four pairs of sneakers that belonged to victims.
The sentencing hearing centered not only on the prison term but also on the damage described by relatives of the men. Fernandez’s mother, Brijida Rodriguez, brought her son’s class ring to court. Miguel Navez’s brother, Felipe Navez, described his brother as a hard worker who brought happiness to family celebrations. Relatives had previously said that earlier punishment imposed in the federal case did not fully reflect the losses they suffered.
Bundrick spoke quietly in court and apologized, saying her drug addiction had contributed to the choices she made while trying to get high. Her lawyers had previously argued in related proceedings that she struggled with significant trauma and intellectual limitations and had not intended for the men to die. State prosecutors, however, said her guilty plea established that she purposely provided fentanyl-laced drugs during the robberies that resulted in the three deaths.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the conduct had left three families mourning. The sentence announced by his office was 27 years to life. CBS New York reported that Bundrick received 25 years to life on each murder conviction, with those terms running concurrently, followed by two years for the assault conviction. The assault count also carries three years of post-release supervision.
The state term will run at the same time as a 13-year federal prison sentence Bundrick is already serving for drug offenses connected to the case. With the guilty plea entered and the state sentence imposed, the prosecution has moved from allegations about a linked series of deaths to final judgments on the murder and assault counts, while the victims’ families continue to live with the consequences described in court.
Author note: Last updated October 7, 2026.