Jury finds man guilty of drug-induced homicide in fatal Wonder Lake overdose

Late Wednesday night, a McHenry County jury found a Rockford man guilty of selling the crack cocaine and heroin that led to a fatal overdose on Christmas Eve 2019 in Wonder Lake.

McHenry County prosecutors alleged that Eric A. Williams, 42, of Rockford, made $300 when he sold the fatal dose to Steffen Darnick, 31, of Belvidere, a man fresh out of drug rehab who was found dead two days later.

Williams’ defense attorney during closing arguments Wednesday afternoon argued his client was innocent and the state’s case was based on “a hunch.”

Jurors also were given the option of finding Williams guilty of a lesser offense, unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, but after more than six hours of deliberation, they found him guilty of drug-induced homicide, a Class X felony, which carries a possible sentence of six to 30 years in prison and is not probational.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 7.

After the verdict was read, Darnick’s family gathered in a conference room in McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office. Darnick’s mother, Aimee Jones, cried as she described Darnick, the oldest of her three sons, as loving, a big teddy bear and someone who gave her the best hugs. She said he had a “hard shell” but “when he loved you, you felt it.”

“To me, he was my first love,” said Jones, who has his ashes on a chain around her neck and “I love you, mama” in his handwriting tattooed on her arm.

Jones, her family and prosecutors, each agreed that although Williams is convicted, there were no winners that night. Both families lose a son, but Williams’ mother, Jones said, still can talk to her son.

“I never get to look at my son again,” Jones said. She is sad that her grandchildren, ages 8, 6 and 3, will grow up without a father, but she is “going to make sure they know who their dad was,” Jones said.

Darnick had just completed a 90-day rehabilitation program in Arizona when on Dec. 21, 2019, his parents picked him up at the airport and brought him to their home in Wonder Lake.

The following day, Jones drove him to Rockford where he allegedly met with Williams and bought the fatal dose of heroin and crack cocaine, prosecutors said. He had told her he was paying off a debt to a drug dealer to protect his family from any harm.

“Three hundred dollars, $300 is what the defendant made on Dec. 22, 2019,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Miller. “Three children lost their father, Aimee Jones lost her son, [his wife] lost her husband, so the defendant could make a quick and easy $300.”

Miller acknowledged Darnick’s long battle with drug addiction and that Darnick made a decision to use drugs that day. Still, “Steffen paid a heck of a price, his family paid a heck of a price,” Miller said, asking the jury to “hold [Williams] accountable for his role in this situation.”

The investigation included recovering deleted messages in Darnick’s cell phone. Miller pointed to conversations found with “Eee” using such street terms as “150 n 150,″ meaning Darnick asked to buy $150 in crack cocaine and $150 in heroin, Miller said.

Once Darnick got the drugs, the conversations with “Eee” ended, Miller said. Darnick’s family members testified he had no access to money or a vehicle and was never left alone, except for the evening of Dec. 23, 2019, when he was caring for his baby. He knew no one in Wonder Lake who could have supplied him with the drugs, they said.

Miller said Darnick “turned to his crutch” that day after he had an emotional reunion with his estranged wife. On the afternoon he arrived at his parents’ house and after his wife, Jacqueline Darnick, visited with their three children, he started texting four different dealers, and one, “Eee,” responded, Miller said.

Williams was identified as “Eee,” who allegedly sold Darnick heroin and crack cocaine in a parking lot of a busy commercial area along East State Street in Rockford, deputies and investigators testified this week.

On Jan. 7, 2020, detectives, pretending to be Darnick, arranged a fake drug buy in the same location. When Williams realized it was a bust, he drove off. When apprehended, McHenry County Sheriff’s Detective Jeff Fields, using Darnick’s cellphone, called “Eee” and one of two cellphones found in Williams’ car rang. Williams was subsequently arrested.

But Hal Garfinkel, Williams’ attorney, said detectives were wrong in acting on “a hunch” and in making assumptions based on inaccurate and incomplete statements made by Darnick’s distraught mother.

Garfinkel pointed to the amount of drugs in Darnick’s bedroom and other suspicious street names in Darnick’s phone – Dchick, Joe n/w and Scrap – who could have sold Darnick the drugs.

No one ever saw Williams give Darnick drugs the day Jones dropped him off in the parking lot under the guise he was paying a drug dealing debt, Garfinkel said. When Williams was arrested on Jan. 7, 2020, no drugs were found on him or in his black Dodge Charger.

Had he concealed or discarded any drugs, Garfinkel said, one of the 15 to 20 undercover agents staking out the parking lot would have seen it. If he had ingested the drugs, he would have become very ill or died.

“They didn’t find anything because there was nothing,” Garfinkel said. “This was not a drug deal.”