Man Pleads Guilty In Fatal Wilmette Crash
SKOKIE, Ill. (STMW) -- A young man from Chicago was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday, one week after pleading guilty in a fatal drunk-driving crash last June in Wilmette.
Szymon Zawadzki, 20, entered a guilty plea to aggravated driving under the influence involving a personal injury traffic crash in Cook County 2nd District Circuit Court, Skokie, according to a news release from Wilmette police Cmdr. Patrick Collins.
Zawadzki was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which he must serve 85 percent before being eligible for parole, and fined for the aggravated DUI involving a fatal traffic crash, according to the release. He also was sentenced to three years, to run concurrent with the aggravated DUI charge.
At 2:33 a.m. June 28, 2010, the Wilmette Police Department investigated a fatal traffic crash on the 700 block of Sheridan Road. Zawadzki was driving a black Nissan Maxima south on Sheridan at a high rate of speed when it veered off the road, struck a fire hydrant and then a tree.
Two back-seat passengers were dead on the scene; a third back-seat passenger was critically injured. A front-seat passenger was treated and released.
Back in November 2010, the estate of one of the people killed in the car crash, Veronica Frances Rojas, filed a wrongful death suit against Zawadzki claiming he was drunk and speeding before the accident.
The suit, which sought more than $100,000 in damages, claimed that Zawadzki was drunk, speeding and failed to keep a proper lookout while driving.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
