CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A Chicago man was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison Friday, Dec. 3 for drug trafficking that resulted in the death of a woman in 2018.
In April, a jury found 40-year-old Eric DeAngelo Griggs guilty of distribution of heroin resulting in a death and two counts of using a communications facility to carry out a drug crime, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Griggs' trial revealed that he had been distributing heroin in 2018 while living in the Waterloo, Iowa, area. That August, Griggs had used Facebook Messenger to conduct a heroin transaction with the victim, a young woman from Cedar Falls who was a heroin user. The victim, according to the release, got the heroin from Griggs and overdosed after using it.
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, a large dose of heroin can slow down your heart rate and breathing in such a way that you are unable to survive without medical help.
Police officers, according to the release, found the victim the next day and were able to use her cellphone to trick Griggs into coming back to give the victim more drugs, which resulted in his arrest.
U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams ordered Griggs on Friday to serve 40 years in prison with five years supervision upon release and pay the victim's family a little more than $16,500 to cover funeral costs and trial-related expenses.
