A South Elgin woman is headed to prison for supplying the heroin to an acquaintance who died from ingesting it.

Andrea R. Nielsen, 25, last address of the 900 block of Mark Street, South Elgin, was sentenced Wednesday, March 11, 2015, by Circuit Judge Susan Clancy Boles to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Nielsen was convicted Jan. 28, 2015, by a Kane County jury of drug-induced homicide, a Class X felony. The offense of drug-induced homicide is committed when someone unlawfully delivers a controlled substance to another person and that person’s death is caused by ingesting the drugs.

Prosecutors presented evidence that on April 4, 2013, the victim, 24-year-old Abbey Nordmeyer of South Elgin, contacted Nielsen and asked her to bring heroin. Nielsen and co-defendant Nicholas Allen, 23, of the 300 block of North River Street, Batavia, had driven to Chicago earlier and purchased heroin. They soon arrived at Nordmeyer’s South Elgin home. The three ingested the heroin and went to sleep. When Allen and Nielsen awoke at about 11 a.m. the next day, Nordmeyer was dead. An autopsy determined that Nordmeyer died of a heroin overdose.

On April 4, 2014, Allen agreed to a sentence of eight years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea to drug-induced homicide, a Class X felony.

According to Illinois law, Nielsen must serve at least 75 percent of the sentence. She receives credit for at least 707 days served in the Kane County jail, where she has been held since her arrest.

The case was prosecuted by Kane County Assistant State’s Attorneys Nicholas Gaeke and Debra Bree.

“Heroin destroys families and lives. It is an epidemic across the Chicago area. Those who use it or provide it to others either learn too late about its consequences or don’t care. Let this case be a painful reminder of the dangers of heroin use,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said.

SOURCE: Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office press release