Whitehead Gets Seven-Year Prison Term for Drugs

Effingham resident Darnell Whitehead has been sentenced to seven years in prison on drug charges.

The 50-year-old Whitehead agreed to plead guilty to the Class 2 Felony count, punishable by up to three to seven years in prison. As part of the plea, a Class X Felony count of drug-induced homicide was dismissed. Had Whitehead been guilty of that count, he could have received anywhere from six to 30 years in prison.

The drug-induced homicide count had charged that Whitehead sold drugs to a 25-year-old Effingham man that led to the man's death in October 2019. 

Whitehead was given credit for 386 days served in jail while awaiting disposition of his case. He will be on two years' mandatory supervised release once out of prison.