A former NBC producer was found dead in a drug-filled Manhattan apartment — and two men he had been hanging out with were arrested after they called 911, police said Thursday.
Thomas Felty, 36, died Jan. 4 at the Upper East Side apartment where George Lopez, 50, and Patrick Walsh, 33, were arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, police said.
Walsh and Lopez met up with Felty earlier that day and the three went back to Lopez’s apartment, police said. Walsh and Lopez fell asleep and then awoke to find that Felty wasn’t breathing.
Lopez called 911 and cops who responded at about 5 a.m. found a trove of drugs that included three large gallon size zip lock bags and six half gallon sized zip lock bags containing methamphetamine inside a black bag on top of a cardboard box.
They also found two large zip lock bags containing cocaine, 100 orange ecstasy pills, 34 Molly pills, 16 additional “cat shaped” ecstasy pills, 56 unidentified additional pills and $26,985.00 in cash in a laundry basket.
Police found a duffel bag that contained more drugs, including meth, hundreds of ecstasy pills, rock cocaine, marijuana and 58 green diazepam pills.
An initial investigation found that Felty, who is originally from Tennessee, had an enlarged heart and had taken narcotics, police sources said. Felty’s cause of death was pending further tests, a spokeswoman with the city Medical Examiner’s office said.
An obituary online shows that Felty worked as a producer for NBC, Universal and several independent production companies.
The obit posted on the Bristol (Tenn.) Herald Courier website says he worked on television shows that included “Monsters Inside Me,” “Disappeared,” “Frenemies,” and “What History Forgot.” The obit says he obtained a master’s degree from Brooklyn College.