Woodstock woman pleads guilty to possessing cocaine, gets 5 years in prison; multiple charges dismissed

A Woodstock woman facing multiple drug- and theft-related felonies pleaded guilty Monday to one count of possessing cocaine and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Tonya M. Krich, 39, entered into a negotiated plea of guilty to unlawful possession with intent to deliver between 1 and 15 grams of cocaine, a Class 1 felony.

A Class 1 felony typically carries a prison term of between four and 15 years and also is probational.

In exchange for her guilty plea, multiple drug and theft felonies filed in separate cases over the past two years were dismissed.

Krich is required to serve 50% of her prison term. She will receive credit for 207 days held in the county jail, plus credit for 79 days, or half a day for each of the 159 days she spent participating in a self-improvement program, working or volunteering, McHenry County Judge Tiffany Davis said.

When released from prison, Krich will serve one year of mandatory supervised release.

Davis said she found that Krich’s crimes were the result of the use or abuse of drugs and alcohol and made a recommendation to the Illinois Department of Corrections that she be placed in a treatment program.

When arrested in May, Krich also was charged with the manufacturing and delivery of fentanyl, charges that were dismissed Monday. At the time of that arrest, she was out of custody on bond for three separate pending cases from 2021 and 2022, according to McHenry County court records. Charges in those cases included unlawful possession of cocaine, hydrocodone, fentanyl and methamphetamine, records show.

Shortly before the May arrest, deputies learned that Krich had “conducted a cocaine transaction at or near her home,” according to a motion filed in court by Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Miller.

Leading up to her arrest in the 2021 case, investigators had been watching Krich as part of an investigation into the sale of narcotics in McHenry County, authorities said.

Investigators heard on a call with a McHenry County jail inmate that Krich “would be selling to obtain money for that inmate’s bond,” according to a motion to compel disclosure of the source of the defendant’s bail funds in the 2021 case.

Investigators observed Krich selling meth to another person, and when that person was stopped, they told police they bought the meth from Krich, according to the motion.

This led to a search of the home she was staying at and the discovery of about 10 grams of cocaine, $1,700 in cash, packaging for the sale of narcotics and a small amount of heroin and fentanyl, according to the motion.

Krich posted cash bond and was released from the county jail, but in 2022 she was arrested again and charged in two separate cases with several counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance (cocaine, hydrocodone and fentanyl), according to the indictments in each of those cases.

Her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Kim Messer, declined to comment.