2 Charged With Using Heroin In Naperville Walgreens Restroom
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (STMW) -- A man who was released from prison only 11 days ago for killing his girlfriend's dog and a convicted drug abuser are in trouble again, this time for allegedly using heroin inside a public restroom of a business in downtown Naperville.
Ex-convicts Michael A. Chacon, 24, and Stephen P. Storino, 23, remained Thursday night in DuPage County Jail in Wheaton on bails of $50,000 and $40,000, respectively. Both face trial on felony charges of possession of a controlled substance, according to records on file in DuPage County Circuit Court.
Chacon lives on the 1200 block of Suffolk Street on Naperville's north side. Illinois Department of Corrections records indicated he was paroled from prison May 28, after serving a 20-month term for a felony conviction for aggravated cruelty to animals.
Storino lives on the 500 block of Warwick Drive, in the Naper Carriage Hill neighborhood on Naperville's far southeast side. He was sentenced to jail in January, after being found guilty of a narcotics crime.
Naperville police arrested the pair about 6:42 p.m. Monday, just after they had left the Walgreens store at 400 S. Main St. along the city's Riverwalk.
Police Sgt. Lou Cammiso said Thursday members of the department's Drug Unit "saw these two guys walking downtown by the Walgreens and kept an eye on them because of their known history" of criminal activity.
The Drug Unit members watched as Storino and Chacon entered one of the store's public restrooms, "and when they came out of the bathroom, they were obviously under the influence" of some kind of narcotic, Cammiso said.
"Our officers went in the bathroom (and) observed heroin packaging, a heroin needle" and other drug-related paraphernalia that had been left there, Cammiso said. Chacon and Storino were arrested "for possession of a small amount of heroin, basically residue, but enough to test" and for police to conclusively identify what it was, he said.
Cammiso confirmed Storino "has been arrested several times" by Naperville police for narcotics possession.
His most recent prior arrest occurred about 4:30 p.m. Nov. 30, when Storino was charged with possession of a controlled substance at an apartment complex on the 700 block of Inland Circle, in the Country Lakes area of Naperville's far northwest side. Court records showed Storino on Jan. 14 pleaded guilty in that case and was sentenced to 92 days in jail, ordered to perform 30 hours of community service work and placed on two years of probation.
Chacon, who stands 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds, was convicted in January of the fatal July 28 beating of his girlfriend's pet, a 4 1/2-pound Chihuahua named Tyson.
The attack occurred in the Glendale Heights apartment Chacon and the woman were sharing at the time. The couple had met while attending Naperville Central High School.
Prosecutors from the DuPage County state's attorney's office during Chacon's trial said he called the woman at work that day to tell her he had returned to the apartment and found the dog dead. The woman hurried home to find Tyson's blood spattered as high as five feet on an interior wall, and Chacon cleaning up some of the blood.
A subsequent examination by a veterinarian concluded Tyson had died of multiple skull and rib fractures. Chacon was implicated in the crime, with one of the woman's relatives revealing the couple had argued the previous day about the dog after it urinated on one of Chacon's shirts.
"It was a small, defenseless little animal," said Naperville resident Israel Acevedo, who had given Tyson to his daughter several years earlier as a birthday present.
Chacon offered no explanation for the killing, but told Judge Blanche Hill Fawell during his sentencing hearing he believed he had problems with drugs or alcohol.
Storino's arraignment is scheduled for June 17, and Chacon's for June 20.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
