CEDAR RAPIDS – A Chicago man who distributed heroin to a young Cedar Falls, Iowa, woman in 2018 that resulted in her death was sentenced on December 3, 2021, to 40 years in federal prison.
Eric DeAngelo Griggs, age 40, from Chicago, Illinois, received the prison term after an April 29, 2021 jury verdict finding him guilty of distribution of heroin resulting in the death of a young woman and two counts of using a communications facility to facilitate a drug crime.
Evidence at trial showed Griggs was living in the Waterloo, Iowa, area in 2018, and was distributing heroin. On August 31, 2018, Griggs used Facebook Messenger to coordinate a heroin distribution to the victim, who was then a user of heroin. Later that evening, the victim obtained the heroin from Griggs, and died of acute heroin intoxication after using it. After the victim was found the next day, police officers used her cellular telephone to call Griggs to come pick up the victim so he could give her more heroin, resulting in his arrest.
Griggs was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Griggs was sentenced to 480 months’ imprisonment and was ordered to make $16,552.90 in restitution to the victim’s mother for funeral and trial-related expenses. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Griggs is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick Reinert and Dillan Edwards and was investigated as part of the Northern Iowa Heroin Initiative and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Cedar Falls Police Department, Waterloo Police Department, Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, Tri-County Drug Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
