A sailor dealing drugs aboard the San Diego-based USS Abraham Lincoln continued to deal to other crew members even after one person ingested a fentanyl-laced pill and died, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Bailey Szramowski, 29, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to selling counterfeit oxycodone pills on the aircraft carrier, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of California said in a statement.
According to Szramowski’s federal criminal complaint, a man identified in court documents by his initials, A.N., died of a fentanyl overdose Jan. 3, 2023, while on leave and staying in a recreational vehicle in San Leandro, Calif. Ten days later, another sailor aboard the aircraft carrier was hospitalized for a drug overdose and was given Narcan, a medication that stops the effects of opioids. That man, identified in court records by his initials, C.L., told investigators Szramowski sold him three pills the day of his overdose. He also told them that Szramowski and the sailor who had died of an overdose had been “actively selling” pills to sailors for about a year.
Szramowski was quick to try to cover up his tracks, according to the criminal complaint.
Szramowski told the deceased man’s aunt, uncle and former fiancee to delete the text messages between him and the victim, telling them that he could “go down for murder,” the three people told investigators, according to court records. The former fiancee told investigators that the victim had told her he’d bought 10 pills from Szramowski for $100 and that, after his death, she searched his things and found only nine pills.
Weeks after the man died, Szramowski told the former fiancee that he’d given him the fentanyl-laced pills, she told investigators, according to court records.
Szramowski’s spouse and fellow former sailor Johnnese Poomaihealani, 25, was also included in the Feb. 14, 2025, indictment and also pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl. According to a U.S. Department of Justice news release, Poomaihealani and Szramowski called the second overdose victim after his overdose and told him to tell police he’d gotten the pills from the sailor who died.
Szramowski and Poomaihealani are scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 11. Szramowski faces five to 40 years in federal prison and Poomaihealani faces up to 20 years, the Justice Department said.
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