Dwight man gets 8 years for selling heroin to woman who overdosed

SHARE Dwight man gets 8 years for selling heroin to woman who overdosed
alksnis_joseph.jpg

Joseph Alksnis | Will County State’s Attorney

A Dwight man was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison for selling heroin to a 19-year-old woman who died from an overdose in southwest suburban Wilmington.

Joseph P. Alksnis, 26, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of drug induced homicide and was sentenced to eight years in prison, according to the Will County state’s attorney’s office. Alksnis also pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to an undercover police officer, and received an additional 10-year sentence that will be served concurrently.

Heather Watson, of Braidwood, died of a heroin overdose in March 2013 outside an apartment complex in Wilmington.

After analyzing Watson’s cell phone, Wilmington police discovered she had been in contact with someone who lived in the complex, prosecutors said. An investigation revealed that Watson and the person who lived in the complex purchased heroin from Alksnis for $40 and later injected the drug together. Watson drove the person she bought the heroin with back to the apartment complex, where she was later found dead.

Alksnis is among 17 people the Will County state’s attorney’s office has charged with drug induced homicide since 2009.

The Latest
Unite Here Local 1, representing the workers at the Signature Room and its lounge, said in a lawsuit in October the employer failed to give 60 days notice of a closing or mass layoff, violating state law.
Uecker has been synonymous with Milwaukee baseball for over half a century.
Doctors say looking at the April 8 eclipse without approved solar glasses — which are many times darker than sunglasses — can lead to retinal burns and can result in blind spots and permanent vision loss.
Antoine Perteet, 33, targeted victims on the dating app Grindr, according to Chicago police.
Glass-facade buildings can disorient birds in flight. The city is expected to update and revise rules for new developments and rehabbed buildings next month. But bird groups say the proposed guidelines need to be mandatory.