A north suburban man is facing drug-induced homicide charges for allegedly providing the fatal dose of the ecstasy-like drug that killed a 21-year-old woman last November, police announced Friday.
Cristina Villasana of Spring Grove was admitted to Vista Freestanding Emergency Center in Lindenhurst at 2 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2014, then transferred to Vista East Hospital in Waukegan, where she died that evening, authorities said at the time.
Round Lake Heights police conducted an investigation and learned that about 10:30 p.m. Nov. 10, Villasana ingested a synthetic drug known as “SASS”—a form of MDMA or Ecstasy made from sassafras plants.
On Friday, Jacob D. Mazzuca, 21, of Ingleside was arrested by the Lake County Sheriff’s Special Investigations Unit after a warrant was issued for his arrest, a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
Police said Mazzuca provided Villasana the “SASS,” “which she ingested and subsequently died.”
Mazzuca has been charged with drug-induced homicide, a Class X felony; and delivery of a controlled substance, also a felony, police said.
He is being held in the Lake County Jail on the $750,000 bond, and is expected to appear in bond court Saturday morning in Waukegan.
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Police are also investigating “false information provided to the hospital staff that may have hampered treatment of Villasana prior to her death,” the statement said.
