Appeals Court Upholds Sentence In Exchange Student's Death

GLEN ELLYN, IL — An appeals court has affirmed a 20-year sentence for Francis Emanuele, formerly of Downers Grove, who was convicted of supplying a fatal dose of methadone to a 15-year-old exchange student in Glen Ellyn in 2016. Emanuele pleaded guilty to drug-induced homicide and indecent solicitation of a child in 2018 and was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years for the charge of drug-induced homicide and four years for the charge of indecent solicitation of a child.

Emanuele had appealed the 20-year sentence, arguing that it was excessive.

According to the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, Emanuele gave the student methadone and instructed her on how to use it. On May 3, 2016, the teen told her host parents that she wasn't feeling well and couldn't go to school. Later that evening, the host parents found the teen unresponsive and not breathing in her bed.

After an investigation, police discovered that Emanuele had also exchanged sexually explicit messages with the teen.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement, "Slightly more than four years ago, to satisfy his perverted sexual desires, Mr. Emanuele supplied a fifteen-year-old girl with a fatal dose of methadone and instruction on how to ingest it. After his first attempt with the Trial Court to have his sentence reduced failed, Mr. Emanuele tried again at the Appellate Court to reduce his well-deserved sentence. I would like to thank the Appellate Court for their thorough review of Mr. Emanuele’s claims and for seeing through his attempt to minimize his culpability in the death of a young girl."

Emanuele must serve a total of 17 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections before he is eligible for parole.

Related:

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