A former Huntley woman who with her husband was convicted in 2018 in what authorities called a “drug-dealing enterprise” has pleaded guilty in a new drug-related case.
Rocio Domino, 48, of Elgin, pleaded guilty last week to unlawful possession of cocaine, a Class 4 felony. She was sentenced to two years of probation, orders filed in McHenry County court show.
She and her husband, Nicholas Domino, 56, were charged last year after a vehicle crash in Lake in the Hills in which she was a passenger.
Records show an arrest warrant has been active since May 15 for Nicholas Domino, who was driving the vehicle when it crashed, according to court records.
He is charged with possessing cocaine, driving recklessly, driving too fast for conditions or failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and other petty traffic offenses, according to a criminal complaint. It does not appear he has been taken into custody at the county jail.
On the evening of March 10, he was driving a 2007 Saturn Ion in Lake in the Hills “at a high rate of speed before losing control of the vehicle, leaving the roadway and striking a tree, causing severe injury to himself and two other passengers of the vehicle,” according to the complaint.
While “receiving medical treatment in an ambulance” at the scene, a plastic bag containing 2.57 grams of cocaine was found, according to the complaint.
While Rocio Domino, a passenger in the car, was being treated for injuries at Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital, security found that she possessed a plastic bag containing 8.46 grams of cocaine, according to the complaint.
In 2015, Nicholas Domino, described as the ringleader of an “extensive” drug operation, was charged along with Rocio and three others with multiple drug-related felonies, according to court records and news stories.
Authorities said at the time that after months of surveillance and listening in on more than 20,000 phone calls, 6,575 of which were about narcotics, agents from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office’s Narcotics Task Force and Drug Enforcement Administration raided two Huntley homes that the couple once owned or lived in and a storage unit in Lake in the Hills, authorities said.
Agents found illicit drugs with a street value of about $700,000, including 295 pounds of marijuana, more than 60 MDMA pills, more than 500 prescription painkillers and 25 grams of cocaine, authorities said.
Police seized nine vehicles, a motorcycle and TVs with a total value of more than $150,000, and two Huntley homes owned by family members were forfeited, authorities said. During this time, the couple was unemployed and collecting $900 a month in public aid, according to official accounts.
In 2018, Rocio Domino pleaded guilty to one count of possessing more than 5,000 grams of marijuana, a Class 1 felony, and was sentenced to one year of probation. Nicholas Domino pleaded guilty to possession of more than 5,000 grams of marijuana, a more serious Class X felony, and was sentenced to prison for 10 years, records in their cases show.