Convicted Sterling drug dealer arrested at courthouse after arriving for hearing on 5 other drug cases

STERLING – A Sterling man indicted by a statewide grand jury on two drug offenses was taken into custody last week at the Whiteside County Courthouse after he showed up for a court hearing for his five other drug cases and a weapons case.

Eric J. Blackhawk, 41, of Sterling, has a criminal history that goes back several years and includes a prison sentence in connection with a May 2009 charge of delivery of cocaine near a school. He pleaded guilty to that charge on May 25, 2011, and was sentenced Dec. 6, 2011, to 16 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. That sentence later was reduced to 14 years.

According to a news release, last week’s arrest stems from complaints that the Illinois State Police’s Blackhawk Area Task Force agents received in May 2024 about narcotic sales in the Sterling area. BATF agents, along with officers from the Sterling and Dixon police departments, investigated and identified Blackhawk as a suspect, according to an ISP news release.

A statewide grand jury indicted Blackhawk on Tuesday, Jan. 21, and he was subsequently charged with two separate counts of delivery of cocaine, a Class 1 felony. Those offenses are alleged to have occurred May 28 and June 5, 2024.

He was served with a warrant for those two drug offenses on Jan. 22 while at the Whiteside County Courthouse for a prescheduled court date on several other cases dating to 2021.

According to Whiteside County Court records, he was charged:

• Sept. 5, 2019, for one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance in August 2021.
• June 25, 2021, for one count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, cocaine, on April 22, 2021.
• June 25, 2021, for one count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, cocaine, and one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance on April 27, 2021.
• June 25, 2021, for one count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, cocaine, on May 12, 2021.
• June 25, 2021, for one count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, cocaine, and one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance on June 23, 2021.

He also was charged Dec. 21, 2021, with aggravated battery, discharging a firearm; being an armed habitual criminal; and aggravated discharge of a firearm. He was accused of committing those offenses on Dec. 17, 2021.

Blackhawk, who was jailed in Whiteside County after his December 2021 arrest, posted bond in the summer 2023 and was released. He was last in court Nov. 13, 2024, and was headed to a Feb. 11, 2025, jury trial on all the drug counts and the weapons case.

He is out of jail on pre-trial conditions and is next to appear in court Feb. 19 for the 2019 case and all the 2021 charges, and on Feb. 21 for the latest two charges.