Round Lake Beach man says he tried to talk friend out of heroin buy

One of the last people to see Danielle Nicholas alive testified Wednesday that his friend was determined to revive a bad habit after having a bad day.

On the second day of testimony in the drug-induced homicide trial of Priest Little, Edgar Lopez said he tried and failed to talk Nicholas out of buying the heroin that killed her.

Lopez said Nicholas and another woman arrived at his Round Lake Beach house late Christmas night, and it was clear to him the women were looking for heroin.

All three were reformed heroin users, Lopez said, and Nicholas had been in rehabilitation for more than eight months.

"But she said she was having a bad day, and she was making some phone calls while they were at my house," Lopez said. "They did not tell me what was going on, but I knew what was going on."

Lopez said he tried talking her out of a relapse, but Nicholas and the other woman could not be dissuaded.

When they left his house around midnight, Lopez said, he was concerned for their safety.

"I told them I knew what they were going to do and told them to come back so I could look out for them," Lopez said. "I waited up until 5 a.m. and kept calling them, but no one would answer the phone."

Prosecutors claim the women drove to Little's house in Grayslake and bought the heroin Nicholas injected later that morning.

Nicholas, 20, of Ingleside, was found dead from an overdose at 6 a.m. the same day.

Also in court Wednesday, a woman who said she started using heroin at 15 testified she bought her drugs exclusively from Little in 2006 and 2007.

Amanda Moa, now 23, said she spent as much as $130 per day to buy up to three foil-wrapped packets of heroin from Little every day during the two-year period.

Moa, who is on probation through the Lake County drug court program and in a residential treatment center, testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Michael Melius of Waukegan, Moa said she could not remember the exact dates of her purchases or where each transaction took place.

Little claims he was with his family when the heroin that killed Nicholas was sold, and Melius told jurors in his opening statement several family members will testify he had no contact with Nicholas on Christmas.

Little faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.