CHICAGO - A trial is underway of a man accused in the 2012 murder of an informant who cooperated with a federal investigation into a central Illinois drug ring.
Marquelle Palmer of Bloomington is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Melissa Woods, whose body was found in the basement of a boarded-up building in Chicago.
In May 2012 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 and 15 others were indicted in a Peoria federal case months after Woods' body was discovered.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports court records show Palmer entered a plea deal in 2014 with Peoria federal prosecutors, though terms of the deal remain sealed. He received a 14-year sentence.
