Trial begins on man charged with giving woman fatal dose of heroin

The curtain opened Tuesday in a Lake County courtroom on what both sides called a classic "who done it" murder mystery.

Prosecutors said Priest Little, 34, spent at least some of last Christmas Day selling the heroin that killed Danielle Nicholas.

Little's defense attorney told the jury of six men and six women that the state's case is built around "heroin addicts and a jailhouse snitch," and that Little was with his family at the time the fatal deal was done.

Little, of the 300 block of Neville Street in Grayslake, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of drug-induced homicide in the death of the 20-year-old Ingleside woman.

Nicholas was found unresponsive in a house in Round Lake Beach about 1:15 a.m. Dec. 26, and died a short time later at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.

Assistant State's Attorney Suzanne Willet said in her opening statement there is no dispute Nicholas' injection of heroin, after she had been off the drug for more than eight months, is what killed her.

Willet said a woman who was present during several phone calls Nicholas made to Little that night, went with her to pick up the heroin at Little's residence, then watched as Nicholas injected it, will lay out the case against Little.

Willet asked jurors not to be swayed by the fact Nicholas, as were many of her friends, was addicted to heroin and used it voluntarily.

"Did she go out and ask for the heroin? Yes she did," Willet said. "Does that mean she deserved to die? No it does not."

Defense attorney Michael Melius said only people who used heroin with Nicholas will testify that his client supplied the drug, and a person who claims to have heard Little discussing the transaction in jail has a history of hallucinations.

"You will be able to hear these people," Melius said in his opening statement. "And you will be able to judge their credibility in light of all the circumstances of that night."

Melius said he will call to the stand several of Little's relatives and his girlfriend who will testify Little was making a series of holiday visits to family in Zion and Round Lake Beach at the time prosecutors claim he was selling heroin to Nicholas.

He asked the jurors not to discount the alibi testimony put forward for his client simply because it will come from members of his family.

"The state will ask you to doubt the testimony; 'Well of course his family says he was with them,'" Melius said. "But it was Christmas - where else was he supposed to be?"