A Round Lake Beach man who a prosecutor called a "grim reaper to every driver on the road" will spend the next 13 years in prison on a DUI conviction -- his eighth.
Timothy Morrow, 43, was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Brian Hughes.
Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon had asked for a 15-year sentence, calling the defendant an "absolute public safety risk." Defense attorney Mike Norris, however, pleaded with the judge for a six year sentence, saying Morrow had not violated the probation to which he'd been sentenced the last two years.
"I think it will deter Mr. Morrow from doing other things," Norris said.
Hughes disagreed, calling it "exhausting to page through [Morrow's] priors.
Morrow, who'd been out on bond in the latest case, was taken into custody immediately following the hearing. Hughes denied Morrow's request for extra time to get affairs in order.
Morrow was 17 years old when he was first arrested on suspicion of DUI. He was arrested again in 1991, three times in 1994, twice in 1995 and again in 2005, 2006, and finally in 2011, Dillon said, according to the Lake County News-Sun. The 2005 and 2006 DUIs were reduced to reckless driving convictions, not DUI convictions, Dillon said. Morrow was also charged with operating a watercraft while drunk in 2004 and 2010.
He was acquitted of the 2010 charge, and the charges were dropped in the 2004 case, Dillon said.
Morrow went to prison in 1995 for two years following his seventh aggravated DUI conviction.
In addition to the prison time, Morrow's driver's license will be revoked for life.
