September 29, 2009
Contact: Thomas E. Murphy
(314) 538-4660
Fairview Heights Man Pleads Guilty in Overdose Death
SEP 29  -- (EAST ST. LOUIS, IL) - A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced that 
Joseph PERRONE,  age 44, of Fairview Heights, Illinois pled guilty on Friday, September 25, 2009, in United States District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois to an indictment charging him with "Distribution of Cocaine, Resulting in Death."
According to evidence presented at 
PERRONE's  change of plea hearing, 
PERRONE  injected Terry Learn, age 32, of Belleville, Illinois, with cocaine in April, 2008. Ms. Learn died immediately. 
PERRONE  then moved her body from his own residence in Fairview Heights to her residence in 
Belleville, in order to create the false impression that Ms. Learn had died alone at her own residence.
PERRONE  will be sentenced in United States District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois at 9 a.m. on January 15, 2010. 
PERRONE  faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, and
 a potential maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
This investigation which resulted in 
PERRONE's  conviction was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Fairview Heights Police Department, and the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office.
The case was prosecuted by the St. Clair County States Attorney's Office, and by Assistant United States Attorney Robert L. Garrison.