Man charged in Algonquin fatal overdose had ‘employees who delivered drugs’ for him daily, prosecutors allege

A McHenry County judge on Wednesday ruled that prosecutors can include some evidence of a Chicago man’s alleged drug dealings at his upcoming trial in connection with the overdose death of a woman in Algonquin.

Rufus L. McGee is charged with three counts of drug-induced homicide, Class X felonies, in the death of Shannon Finn, 22, on May 28, 2019, McHenry County court show.

The day before her death, Finn traveled from her home in McHenry County to a mall parking lot in Oak Brook with three other people and bought heroin laced with fentanyl, authorities said. Finn ingested the fentanyl-laced heroin and died the next morning, according to court documents.

McGee was charged in Finn’s death along with another man, Sabastian Zarbock of Crystal Lake.

In 2021, Zarbock was found not guilty of drug-induced homicide. He was found guilty of a lesser charge of possession of a controlled substance, records show.

Zarbock had been accused of assisting Finn in arranging the heroin deal shortly before she died, court records show. His public defender wrote in closing arguments that “the state’s continuing overreach in the prosecution of addicts for drug-induced homicide has been found to be an utter failure on curbing overdose deaths.”

In McGee’s case, McGee ran “an extensive drug business” with “multiple employees who delivered drugs on his behalf, daily, throughout the Chicago suburbs,” according to a motion submitted in court by Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Miller, who added that orders for drugs were placed on a phone line paid for by McGee.

He then would direct the caller “to a location in the western or northwestern suburbs, where [McGee] or one of his employees would arrive with the drugs,” according to the motion.

The night before Finn’s death, a phone belonging to one of her companions made multiple calls to the phone owned and paid for by McGee, according to court records.

“The group was directed to a mall parking lot, where [McGee] or one of his employees sold the fatal drugs,” according to the motion.

McGee’s defense attorney, Beau Brindley, said in an email after the hearing that his client “is not surprised that the state wants to make this case about other drug trafficking involving Rufus McGee rather than focus on the absence of evidence connecting him to the death charged in this case.

“We look forward to demonstrating his innocence at trial,” Brindley wrote.

Judge Tiffany Davis reserved her ruling on allowing into McGee’s trial a police interview he gave June 14, where he allegedly “described his drug business operations and how he might have been present at the Oak Brook parking lot on May 27, 2019, but he might have sent a different person to that deal instead,” according to the motion.

The judge allowed the state to present evidence of two attempted controlled drug buys by police from McGee in 2019, as well as text messages from May 27 and 28 of that year.

Davis also reserved ruling on allowing photographs “demonstrative of his drug business and his extensive efforts to coordinate the sale of drugs throughout the Chicago suburbs,” according to the motion.

According to a separate motion in McGee’s file, the photos show him “posing with large amounts of money” and “large plates full of what appears to be heroin.”

McGee also is charged with drug-induced homicide in the death of Robert Gibson, 48, who fatally overdosed from heroin and fentanyl March 8, 2019, in his Harvard home, court records show.

McGee is accused in that case of delivering the fatal mix of drugs to Gibson two days before his death, according to the indictment.

Two others also were charged in connection with Gibson’s death: Tina Shatters, 45, of Hebron, and Chano Sanchez, 43, of Woodstock.

They initially were charged with drug-induced homicide, but Shatters was convicted on a lesser charge of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 30 months of probation.

Sanchez also was convicted of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and was sentenced to seven years in prison, court records show.

McGee is being held in the DuPage County jail on unrelated weapons and drug charges. He was taken to the McHenry County jail for Wednesday’s hearing. He’s next due in McHenry County court Feb. 14.

A conviction on a Class X felony carries a prison sentence of up to 30 years.