18 years for man who sold heroin that killed Naperville man

A Melrose Park man was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison for selling a fatal dose of heroin that killed a Naperville man in 2015.

A DuPage County jury convicted Kevin Liszka, 34, of drug-induced homicide in March, after a three-day trial.

Judge George Bakalis said Liszka's extensive criminal history, which includes seven felony convictions and an 8-year prison sentence, weighed heavily on the new sentence.

Bakalis said Liszka himself battled with addiction and had sold drugs "on a daily basis" to fund his own habit. "The defendant has been putting a steady stream of narcotics into the community," Bakalis said. "Hopefully this is a watershed event in the defendant's own life."

Liszka was charged after the heroin overdose death of Marcus Penton of Naperville. Penton, 26, died Feb. 19, 2015, after injecting heroin that he received from a friend named Skyler Sabala, who had purchased the drugs from Liszka.

Sabala, of Naperville, pleaded guilty in October 2016 to manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Outside court after the sentencing, Liszka's mother, Donna Liszka, called the drug-induced homicide law unfair and challenged DuPage to create a comprehensive approach to treating addiction.

"He's 34 now. He's been battling this since he was a teenager," she said. "Locking him up for 18 years isn't going to fix anything. It's a brain misfunction. You're not going to cure it that way."

State's Attorney Robert Berlin said the case is a reminder of the "very dangerous and deadly opioid crisis" that has killed 31 people in the county since January.

"With this case, and today's sentencing, we are again sending the message to drug dealers that if you provide illegal drugs that lead to the death of another person, you will face a significant amount of time in the penitentiary," Berlin said. "This morning (Liszka) learned that his decision to sell that fatal dose of heroin will land him behind bar for nearly two decades."

Liszka, who has been held on $2 million bail since his 2015 arrest, must serve 75 percent of the sentence before being eligible for parole.