Woodstock man gets 7 years in prison for providing fatal heroin overdose

A Woodstock man was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday after admitting to providing a fatal dose of fentanyl-laced heroin to a 43-year-old McHenry man.

Christopher L. Birong, 46, of the 2100 block of Willowbrook Drive, was charged with drug-induced homicide in the July 2018 overdose of Shawn A. Ackerman.

Ackerman died July 10 after authorities responded to the 3100 block of Lincoln Road in McHenry for an unresponsive person. Birong was charged in October with providing Ackerman with the fatal drug dose, McHenry County court records show. Birong faced six to 30 years in prison on the drug-induced homicide charge.

Under a plea agreement approved Monday by Judge Sharon Prather, prosecutors dismissed felony charges of manufacture/delivery of controlled substance with intent to deliver against Birong from a separate case in exchange for the guilty plea. The second set of drug charges carried a top prison term of seven years. Under state law, Birong must serve 75 percent of his seven-year sentence, which is just more than five years.

Birong gets credit for about six months served at the McHenry County jail while the case was pending.

Authorities also have charged a second man, Timothy R. Colby, 43, of McHenry, with drug-induced homicide in Ackerman’s death. Colby is being held at the McHenry County jail on $110,000 bail, meaning he must post $11,000 to be released while the case is pending. Colby has pleaded not guilty and is next due in court May 2.