Putnam County Narcotics Dealer Arrested In Connection With The Murder Of One Of His Customers

Dwayne Pulliam Arrested for Participating in a Conspiracy to Distribute Crack Cocaine and for Traveling Interstate and Using Facilities of Interstate Commerce to Operate a Narcotics Business Enterprise, and Murdering a Customer He Believed Was Stealing from That Business 

 Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Kevin McConville, the Sheriff of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, announced today the filing of a criminal complaint in White Plains federal court charging DWAYNE PULLIAM, a/k/a “Doc,” with: (1) participating in a crack-cocaine-distribution conspiracy; and (2) traveling between New York and Connecticut, and using cellphones, to operate a narcotics business enterprise—his business selling crack cocaine—and murdering Lori Lee Campbell, a customer he believed was stealing from his business. PULLIAM was arrested yesterday afternoon in the area of New Milford, Connecticut, and was presented yesterday before United States Magistrate Judge Andrew E. Krause. PULLIAM was ordered held without bail.

As alleged in the Complaint[1]:

In or about December 2020, PULLIAM was released from approximately 24 years of prison for murder. Not long afterward, from at least in or about January 2022, PULLIAM engaged with others in the business of selling crack cocaine, traveling between New York and Connecticut to do so, and using phones to do so.

On March 29, 2022, PULLIAM contacted a co-conspirator of his in the drug trade and asked him to help move an Acura that belonged to Lori Lee Campbell. PULLIAM told his co-conspirator that he suspected that Campbell was stealing drugs from him, that PULLIAM confronted Campbell, that Campbell tried to leave but PULLIAM did not let her do so, and that Campbell started screaming. PULLIAM then told his co-conspirator that he “stopped her from screaming” and that this was not the first time he had “done this.”

When the co-conspirator went with PULLIAM back to PULLIAM’s apartment in Patterson, New York, the co-conspirator saw Campbell’s dead body in the apartment, wrapped in a sheet. PULLIAM said “there’s the culprit,” and then directed his co-conspirator to help him move the body, threatening to kill the co-conspirator’s family if the co-conspirator did not do so. The co-conspirator helped PULLIAM move the body to PULLIAM’s Honda Accord, and they then drove to PULLIAM’s mother’s house in North Carolina. PULLIAM and his co-conspirator got shovels, a bag of lime, and plastic wrap from a shed by PULLIAM’s mother’s house, and drove Campbell’s body to a cul-de-sac, where her body was ultimately covered in lime and buried in a shallow grave.

On April 19, 2021, law enforcement officers found and recovered Campbell’s body from the area in North Carolina where PULLIAM’s co-conspirator said it was buried.

DWAYNE PULLIAM, a/k/a “Doc,” 59, of Patterson, New York is charged with one count of traveling in interstate commerce, and using a facility in interstate commerce, with intent to engage in a business enterprise involving narcotics, and thereafter committing murder to further that unlawful activity, and one count of participating in a conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 28 grams and more of crack cocaine. The travel act count carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The narcotics conspiracy count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the FBI Charlotte Division, the DEA New York Division, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, the Alamance County Sherriff’s Office, the Connecticut State Police, and the Putnam County District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Williams noted that the investigation is ongoing.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Complaint, and the description of the Complaint set forth herein, constitutes only allegations, and every fact described therein should be treated as an allegation.