Grayslake man guilty in drug death

A Lake County jury deliberated about 3½ hours Friday before finding Priest Little guilty of supplying the heroin that led to the death of a 20-year-old woman.

Little, 34, of Grayslake, faces a mandatory prison sentence of six to 30 years when he returns to Circuit Judge Fred Foreman for sentencing Sept. 28.

Little sold heroin to Danielle Nicholas of Ingleside late at night on Christmas Day, and she was discovered dead of an overdose at the Round Lake Beach house of a friend the next day.

That friend testified she was with Nicholas when Nicholas bought the heroin from Little. Prosecutors presented phone records that showed Nicholas and Little had exchanged several calls during that day.

A second woman testified during the trial that she purchased heroin from Little up to three times a day in 2006 and 2007.

Waukegan attorney Michael Melius called seven of Little's relatives who testified Little was visiting them in Zion at the time the fatal transaction occurred.

But during her closing argument, Assistant State's Attorney Suzanne Willett attacked the testimony by questioning why no relatives went to police with the alibi information after Little's arrest in January.

"Does that make any sense to you," she asked the jury of six men and six women. "That you would have information that would exonerate someone and you would sit on it for eight months?"

Melius asked jurors to consider the possibility it was Nicholas' friend, Nicole Barraza of Round Lake Beach, who provided the fatal dose. Both women were heroin addicts, Melius said, although Nicholas had been clean of the drug for eight months before her death.

After Nicholas' body was found in Barraza's home, police found a quantity of syringes and other drug paraphernalia.

"And you don't think Nicole Barraza had her own stash back at the house," Melius asked in his closing argument. "You don't need a hammer to hit you in the head to figure that out."

Foreman revoked Little's $500,000 bond after the verdict and ordered him held without bond until the sentencing hearing.

Nicholas' mother wept after the verdict was read but declined to comment outside the courtroom.