Savanna fentanyl dealer charged with drug-induced homicide

SAVANNA – A 23-year-old Savanna fentanyl dealer already serving time in Iowa and convicted of dealing in Illinois is charged in Carroll County court with drug-induced homicide in the 2022 death of a 28-year-old Thomson woman, the Illinois State Police announced in a news release Friday.

Saidrick Thomas was charged Wednesday and faces six to 30 years in prison if convicted. He also is charged with dealing a controlled substance, which carries a prison sentence of three to seven years.

Thomas is accused of providing Amy LaShelle the drugs that caused her overdose death March 2, 2022.

He was sentenced May 24 in Carroll County to eight years in prison for dealing fentanyl, a sentence that will run concurrently with a sentence handed down Oct. 27, 2022, in the Iowa Department of Corrections for conspiring with intent to deliver the drug. He is serving time in the Anamosa State Penitentiary in Iowa.

One count of possession of more than 30 but less than 500 grams of cannabis was dismissed per a plea agreement.

Thomas was convicted in Iowa of four counts of possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl for selling the drug to confidential informants of the Blackhawk Area Task Force four times that spring.

He also was charged with four counts of violating Iowa’s drug tax stamp law, a felony, but those charges were dismissed per a plea agreement.