Jacksonville man sentenced to eight years for fentanyl possession

A Morgan County court sentenced 48-year-old David Grandadam of the 500 block of South Church in Jacksonville to eight years in prison for possession of fentanyl. The term adds another significant prison sentence to a county docket that continues to handle fentanyl cases with serious consequences.

Grandadam’s case began with a May 24, 2025 arrest tied to the 500 block of East Morton Avenue in Jacksonville. Police stopped his vehicle for speeding, and a police dog found a black bag in a fuse compartment in the engine. Those details placed the case far beyond a routine drug stop and turned it into one of the more serious narcotics prosecutions in Morgan County court.

Grandadam was also described as having a history of violent crimes. That background, paired with the fentanyl conviction, helps explain why the case ended with a lengthy prison term rather than a shorter county-level sanction. In a community the size of Jacksonville, where East Morton and South Church are both part of the daily landscape, the combination of narcotics possession, a hidden compartment search and a violent record gives the case added weight in the courtroom.

The sentence also lands in the middle of a broader local public-safety question that keeps resurfacing in Morgan County: whether fentanyl cases like this one are isolated incidents or part of a wider pattern of drug-related crime moving through Jacksonville. An eight-year term keeps Grandadam out of the community for a substantial period, and it signals that Morgan County courts are treating fentanyl possession tied to a serious criminal history as a major offense, not a minor drug case.