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Carol Stream heroin death verdict pushed to Monday

A suspected Chicago narcotics dealer charged with drug induced homicide, Malcolm Brown, will have to wait until Monday to learn his fate in DuPage County court.

DuPage Judge Blanche Hill Fawell, who is presiding over his bench trial, was expected to rule Friday on Brown's case.

But after attorneys gave their closing arguments, Fawell sent them home for the weekend without a ruling.

"You've given me a lot to think about," she said. "I'll rule Monday at 9 a.m."

Brown, 25, faces between six and 30 years in prison if he is found guilty of supplying the heroin that resulted in the overdose death of 38-year-old Stephen Briston, who was found dead July 28, 2011, in the bathroom of a Carol Stream apartment.

During the two-day bench trial, prosecutors have argued, and witnesses have testified, that the day before the death Malcolm Brown sold five bags of heroin to Richard Brown, 37, who then took the drugs to the Carol Stream apartment and shared them with Briston and another man.

Richard Brown, a self-described recovering heroin addict, testified during the trial that following Briston's death he struck a deal with officials and agreed to set up another buy from Malcolm Brown and testify at his trial. In exchange, Richard Brown was only charged with heroin possession and not charged in Briston's death.

"(Malcolm Brown) is a drug dealer from Chicago who sold the drugs that were brought back to Carol Stream and killed Stephen Briston," Assistant Audrey Anderson said. "And we ask that you find him guilty."

Assistant Public Defender Steve Dalton, however, told Fawell he does not believe the prosecutors proved without a reasonable doubt that the killer dose of heroin came from his client.

Dalton argued that lab tests done on several empty bags to determine what residue they contained were inconclusive because bags not sold by Brown, and possibly containing cocaine and heroin, were tested with the bags Brown admitted selling.

"The state has not proven (Briston) died from the heroin in these bags," Dalton said. "They simply didn't prove where (the heroin) came from."

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