JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI – jduchnowski@nwherald.com
December 10, 2008

WOODSTOCK – A Huntley man accused of giving an 18-year-old woman the heroin that made her slip into a coma could be released in six months if he successfully completes a boot-camp program, his attorney said. Joseph Pace, 20, of 11611 Bernice Ave., Huntley, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison but recommended for the state’s Impact Incarceration Program for young, non-violent offenders who haven’t been incarcerated more than once.

Pace will have to serve the prison sentence if he is not accepted to the program or if he flunks out. He could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for selling six bags of heroin to an undercover officer for $120 in a Woodstock grocery store parking lot June 20.

Defense attorney George Kililis said he expected that Pace would become a productive member of society after he’s released.

“If you have any sympathy for the state’s complaining witnesses because they were victims of their addiction, then you’ve got to have sympathy for [Pace] because he, too, was a victim of addiction,” Kililis said. “All his activities were because of his addiction.”

In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped two other drug-related charges and reduced a count of drug-induced aggravated battery to unlawful delivery of a controlled substance.

If the cases went to trial, testimony would show that Kelly Cunningham, of Carpentersville, and her boyfriend drove with Pace to Chicago, where he bought heroin from his regular supplier Aug. 15.
Cunningham overdosed on heroin two days later. When she recovered, she had trouble remembering what happened before the overdose, said Nichole Owens, chief of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Criminal Division.

“There was a chance that someone else had delivered the drugs to her,” Owens said.