An Aurora woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison today for crashing her car while drunk and killing five teens.
"As a result of your decision, five people are dead," Kendall County Judge Clint Hull told Sandra Vasquez. "You are not a bad person. You made a bad decision but a conscious decision. You had the keys, you didn’t have to drive."
Prosecutors had asked for 24 years while Vasquez’s attorney wanted probation.
The sentencing hearing began dramatically this morning when Vasquez collapsed in court as her mother took the stand to testify on her behalf.
As her mother told the court how her daughter’s 8-year-old son Isaiah marks down on a calendar every day his mother is gone, Vasquez began sobbing and moaning.
Hull finally ordered a recess. Two deputies held a limp Vasquez by her arms and helped her out of the courtroom. She returned to the courtroom a few minutes later.
Vasquez’s attorney, Kathleen Colton,tiffany, then read a letter written by Isaiah: "Can you please bring my mommy back? I love her and can’t live without her," it said in part.
After the letter was read, Vasquez turned around and mouthed "I love you" to her son, who was sitting behind her in the first row of the gallery, and blew him a kiss, just as she did when she entered the courtroom at the start of the hearing.
Colton also submitted to the judge a scrapbook of grateful letters from families of Alzheimer’s patients whom Sanda had cared for, and a candle Sandra had bought after the accident.
Sandra had taped photos of the crash victims on the candle and the date of the accident, her mother said. Sandra kept the candle in her bedroom, where she prayed in front of it every night, her mother said.
"I felt like I lost a part of my daughter," she said. "There were moments when she didn’t want to go on with life."
Sandra Vasquez’s sister, Erica,Atlas charm bracelet, 28, also spoke during the hearing, saying Sandra had tried to commit suicide several times since the accident.
"She feels it should have been her and not them,bangles," Erica Vasquez said.
Turning to the victims’ families in the gallery, she said: "You may never forgive us and we understand, but just know that my sister meant well. She never meant for this to happen."
Vasquez had to be escorted out of the courtroom a second time when Donna Dwyer, the mother of one of the victims, Matthew Frank, gave an impact statement and talked about seeing his body after the accident.
Vasquez rocked back and forth as Dwyer described how her son’s eyes would not close after he died.
"I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, God, I can’t do this," Vasquez said, putting her hands over her ears. She was then taken out of the courtroom.
Dwyer also told the judge how hard her son’s death has been for her family.
"Imagine, never being able to hear your child’s voice again. Can you imagine never being able to hug or touch your child again?" Dwyer said.
Other victims’ families are also expected to give statements before the judge hands down the sentence.
In his closing statement, Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis asked for a 24-year sentence. The maximum is 28 years.
Defense attorney Kathleen Colton asked for probation.
Said Weis, "Offering a ride home isn’t an excuse for driving drunk. It’s not OK to drive and drink; it’s not OK to speed; it’s not OK to take those lives at such a young age."
Colton said, "Both sides are in pain that can’t be erased. Mistakes were made by other people that caused these confluence of events."
After a mid afternoon break, Vasquez was to be given the chance to make a statement. Judge Clint Hull’s sentencing would follow.
Vasquez, the mother of two young children,rings, was convicted in June of reckless homicide and drunk driving by a Kendall County jury following a two-week trial.
About 30 teens were drinking at a Montgomery home the night of Feb. 11, 2007, until a parent came home and broke up the party, witnesses testified at the emotional trial.
Eight of the teens crammed into Vasquez’s small sedan to bum a ride home from the woman, whom none of them knew.
Matthew Frank, 17, and Katherine Merkel, 14, shared the front passenger seat. Four other teens jammed into the back seat, and Jessica Nutoni, 15, and Tiffany Urso, 16, climbed on top of them.
A few minutes later, as the car traveled more than 70 mph down Illinois Highway 31 near River Run Boulevard, it swerved, then veered into a light pole, instantly killing Frank, Merkel, Nutoni and Urso.
Backseat passenger James McGee, 16, died eight days later. Vasquez and her other three passengers suffered serious injuries.
Vasquez, who had been out on bond prior to the trial, was taken into custody immediately after the verdict.
Colton had portrayed her young client as a good Samaritan who was not blameless but did not deserve to go to jail.
"I think it would be a travesty if she was sent to prison," Colton said.
Vasquez testified that she went to the home in Montgomery the night of the party to pick up her younger sister. She said she agreed to give one obviously intoxicated teen a ride home, then others asked to join them.
She maintained she was not drunk, and jurors appeared to focus on that point, asking during 12 hours of deliberations for written transcripts of expert testimony on Vasquez’s blood-alcohol level.
Vasquez admitted to drinking as many as four drinks that night but said she was not drunk.
Different types of blood-alcohol readings showed her level as high as 0.124 percent, although an expert said it could have been as low as 0.04 percent.
–Art Barnum,watches, Gerry Smith, Angie Leventis Lourgos
