CHICAGO (AP) – Jurors in Chicago have convicted a Bloomington man in the 2012 murder of an informant who cooperated with a federal investigation into a central Illinois drug ring.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports Marquelle Palmer was found guilty Friday of murder in the death of Melissa Woods, whose body was found in 2012 in the basement of a boarded-up building in Chicago.
Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Marilyn Salas-Wail told jurors during closing arguments Thursday that Woods “should not have died alone and scared and helpless.”
Woods was to testify in a drug case targeting Palmer, his brother and more than a dozen others accused of trafficking cocaine out of a Bloomington car dealership. Palmer is serving a 14-year sentence on a federal conviction in connection to his role in the drug ring.