DeKalb woman pleads guilty to selling fentanyl-laced drugs that killed high school senior

SYCAMORE – Tisha Davis wore a bright pink T-shirt with a picture of her son, Diamonte Dailey, on it as she looked directly at the woman guilty of selling the fentanyl-laced drugs that he overdosed on and described her final memories of him.

It was the morning after Diamonte’s 18th birthday, April 4, 2022. He’d been eager to graduate from DeKalb High School that spring. Investigators determined that the night prior, April 3, Diamonte took some heroin that was later found to be laced with fentanyl. He overdosed in his childhood bedroom and died on his bed.

Tisha awoke the next morning, realized he hadn’t yet gotten up for school, and went to check on him. She found his bedroom door locked. She kicked the door in when he wasn’t responding, and found her son lying half on his bed, “unresponsive and cold,” she said as she recited what keeps her up at night.

“I’m telling you this because this is the last memory I have of my son, and I want you to have the same last memory,” Davis told Madison Ricke, 24, of DeKalb, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug-induced homicide, a Class X felony.

“Every night I close my eyes, this is what I see,” Davis said, her voice quivering as she gave an emotional statement. “I don’t feel complete anymore. Not a day goes by that I am not crying or breaking out in tears. Every holiday, every birthday, every special occasion has a sadness to it as Diamonte is not here to experience it with us.”

Ricke was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick to 12 years in prison. She faced up to 30 years if she’d been found guilty in a jury trial, a right she waived alongside her plea Wednesday. She also pleaded guilty to three other felonies in separate cases: unlawful use of a credit card, theft and forgery.

Prosecutor Scott Schwertley of the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office said that on June 11, 2022, Ricke spent the night at a woman’s home in DeKalb and then used the woman’s credit card to make purchases at Six Flags, PayPal and a clothing store. On Nov. 29, 2021, Ricke used a counterfeit $100 bill at a Marathon gas station in DeKalb, Schewertley said. And on Sept. 10, 2021, Ricke stole her Sycamore landlord’s refrigerator and chest freezer and sold the appliance on Facebook Marketplace, Schwertley said.

Ricke pleaded guilty to all three felonies Wednesday, and to drug-induced homicide. As part of the plea deal agreed upon by prosecutors and Ricke’s defense attorney, Chip Criswell of the DeKalb County Public Defender’s Office, other charges were dropped.

That included an escape charge from 2022 after authorities said Ricke fled to Florida after escaping from a Vernon Hills drug treatment facility. Buick initially had allowed Ricke a furlough on her cases to seek substance abuse treatment. The treatment Ricke fled from was part of an addiction court program in DeKalb County that offers an alternative to jail time for defendants struggling with addiction.

Ricke was on the run for several months before police found her in Florida, and she was extradited to Sycamore. She is no longer eligible for treatment court, according to court records.

Although she did not speak except to acknowledge the judge Wednesday, Ricke grew visibly emotional as Diamonte’s older sister, Adriana DeMarco, recalled her memories of her brother.

“Diamonte was truly one of a kind. He was sweet, he was funny and he was loving,” DeMarco said, also wearing a pink T-shirt with her smiling brother’s picture. “He was a great brother, a great uncle and he was my built-in best friend. Honestly more like my child than my brother. I always say he was my first baby. From the moment my mom brought him home from the hospital, I made sure he was always taken care of.”

As DeMarco spoke, she looked directly at Ricke, who returned the gaze. When Buick asked if she was guilty of drug-induced homicide, Ricke said, “Yes, ma’am.”

Diamonte’s mother and sister said they know Ricke will eventually be free to live her life.

“I want you to be grateful that you still have a life, and actually go and do something with it, because my brother doesn’t get that chance,” DeMarco said.

DeMarco said her mom called her frantically that morning when she found Diamonte unresponsive, later saying the coroner confirmed the newly 18-year-old was dead. The DeKalb County Coroner’s Office later determined Diamonte died after consuming heroin laced with fentanyl. Prosecutors said Ricke sold bags of the pills to a different minor, who then gave the drugs to Diamonte.

“The wondering if he was scared or if he was in pain or if he knew he was going to die haunts me every day,” DeMarco said. “Life will never be the same without him.”

The late teenager’s family did not shy away from discussing Diamonte’s struggles with substance abuse. They previously told Shaw Local News Network he had gone to rehab before, and that they wanted to tell his story so the community wouldn’t see him as “just another statistic.”

“I understand that you are an addict and I sympathize,” DeMarco said in her statement, looking at Ricke. “My brother obviously struggled with addiction and I understand that being in active addiction makes you do a lot of unspeakable things. But that is not an excuse.”

Drug overdose deaths have been on the rise among American teenagers for years, according to data provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From July 2019 to May 2021, monthly overdose deaths in teenagers ages 14 to 18 rose from 31 in 2019 to 87 per month by May 2021, CDC data shows. Monthly overdose deaths in ages 10 to 19 increased by 109% from July to December 2019 and July to December 2021.

Deaths involving pills laced with fentanyl, a powerful opioid often given for pain in cancer patients, increased in that subset by 182%, according to the CDC.

While overdose deaths in the U.S. declined by about 2% in 2023, the numbers are still higher than they were pre-pandemic, The Associated Press reported. It’s a mortality rate that’s been trending high for nearly 30 years.

Under the plea agreement, Ricke will get credit for time spent in DeKalb County Jail, 713 days. She was sentenced to five years each for theft and forgery, and three years for unlawful use of a credit card. She’ll serve those sentences at the same time as the homicide sentence, Schwertely said. She must serve at least 85% of the 12 years and then must do 18 months of mandatory supervised release, formerly known as parole, after release.

Ricke could be in her early 30s when she’s out of prison in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

DeMarco said she’s haunted by the what-ifs: What if she had gone to her mom’s house that night? What if she hadn’t given Diamonte cash for babysitting her kids, or for the new sweater he said he wanted for his birthday?

“As an older sister you tend to make it your mission to protect your little siblings at all costs but sometimes no matter how hard you try there are just things you can’t protect them from,” DeMarco said, speaking directly to Ricke. “I have to live every day with the fact that I could not protect him from you.”