Man charged with drug-induced homicide of fellow DuPage County jail inmate

A DuPage County jail detainee is accused of killing another inmate by supplying him fentanyl-laced heroin in the jail.

Derichard P. Brown, 22, of the 100 block of South 12th Street in Maywood, is charged with one count of drug-induced homicide stemming from the July 19 death of 48-year-old Percy Walker.

Brown had been admitted to the jail June 25 on charges of aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated fleeing and eluding.

On Monday, a prosecutor told DuPage County Judge Michael Reidy that video surveillance shows Brown and Walker conducting a hand-to-hand transaction July 19. The two then went to a day room, where a playing card and a plastic sandwich-type bag are seen on a table. Walker snorted something off the playing card, prosecutors say.

Less than 15 minutes later Brown walked Walker back to Walker's cell. Another detainee told Brown that Walker was losing color and that they should call for help by hitting an alert button. Brown told him not to do so, the prosecutor said.

After putting Walker in his cell, Brown returned to his cell and was seen placing something in a bottle of cleaning solution, then flushing it down a toilet, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor requested $3 million bail, but Reidy set it at $750,000 Monday. That is on top of the $300,000 bail on Brown's 2022 case. Prosecutors told Reidy they want the bail on that case increased to $600,000.

At the time of his June 2022 arrest, Brown was on parole for a carjacking.

Walker, of Chicago, was in jail awaiting trial on charges including burglary, retail theft and aggravated assault.