Heroin Death Gets Romeoville Man 12 Years

A Romeoville man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for driving a woman to Chicago so she could buy the heroin that killed her boyfriend.

Benjamin Camunias, 28, had been found guilty of drug-induced homicide following a June trial before Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak.

Camunias drove to Chicago with 31-year-old Amy Shemberger in August 2014 and the pair purchased a jab of heroin for $100. Camunias and Shemberger split the heroin and he then dropped her off at the Lockport house where she was living with Peter Kucinski, 31, his mother, Dorothy Kucinski, and Peter Kucinski’s 5-year-old son.

After she got to the house, Shemberger provided heroin to Peters Kucinski. He snorted it and died.

Dorothy Kucinski told of finding her son dying of the heroin overdose in her basement when she petitioned for a protective order against Shemberger.

“I told Amy to get her hands off of me, she then called me a f---ing bitch, she said karma is a bitch, isn’t it, she said it was my fault my son died,” Dorothy Kucinski said of Shemberger.

Shemberger’s mother, Pat Shemberger, on the other hand, blamed the Peter Kucinski for his own death.

“Amy did not murder her boyfriend Peter,” Pat Shermberger wrote in a letter to Judge Bertani-Tomczak. “Peter started on that road over 17 years ago with all his heavy drug/alcohol abuse.”

Amy Shemberger was also charged with drug-induced homicide. She testified against Camunias at his trial and is scheduled to plead guilty later this month.

During Camunias’ sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced another heroin death they claimed involved him.

After 19-year-old Kelly Dippner overdosed and died in Bolingbrook in December 2010, Camunias allegedly sent a Facebook message to her mother, Lori Dippner, in which he blamed himself, in part, for the death.

Lori Dippner read the message from the witness stand. She said Camunias told her, “I know I have some blame for that night.”

“I want so much to turn the clock back” so he could have done more to help the dying teen, Lori Dippner said Camunias wrote. She also said Camunias described himself as a “p---y drug addict loser who cared only for dope.”

Camunias was questioned by Bolingbrook police but never charged with Dippner’s death.

“Benjamin Camunias is learning the hard way about the consequences of getting involved in heroin-related drug deals,” State’s Attorney James Glasgow said. “Heroin is an extraordinarily dangerous narcotic that kills users indiscriminately. The message is absolutely clear: If you are responsible for delivering this poison, you’re on the hook for any user who dies from an overdose.”