A Rockford man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for being the drug supplier who sold fentanyl that later resulted in the overdose death of a 21-year-old man in Crystal Lake.
Markeeon L. Neal, 31, of Rockford, was charged in June 2024 with drug-induced homicide, a Class X felony, and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, a Class 2 felony.
The Crystal Lake Police Department responded to a home on Terra Cotta Avenue in Crystal Lake on March 11.
Officers found an unresponsive male, later identified as Maximus Herman, 21, of Crystal Lake, unresponsive.
Paramedics worked to revive him but he was later pronounced dead, prosecutors said.
The McHenry County Coroner’s Office determined Herman’s cause of death to be an overdose of fentanyl.
Prosecutors said the police department determined that Herman had obtained the fentanyl from a person who had purchased the drugs from Neal.
Court documents said Neal was selling fentanyl and used the help of multiple people to commit the crime.
He was also on probation at the time of the incident for domestic battery.
Court records show Neal, who has been held in the McHenry County Jail since his arrest, entered into a negotiated plea deal with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office last week.
Neal pleaded guilty to an amended count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, a Class 1 felony, in exchange for his more serious charge of drug-induced homicide being dismissed.
McHenry County Judge Mark Gerhardt approved the plea deal and sentenced Neal to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) pursuant to the agreement.
Neal will be on mandatory supervised release for 12 months upon his release from the IDOC.
McHenry County State’s Attorney Randi Freese said after sentencing that she was appreciative of the responding and investigative officers from the Crystal Lake Police Department who identified Neal as the person who sold the deadly drug.