A 17-year-old southwest suburban man has been sentenced to five years in prison for a drunken driving crash last November that killed a woman as she slept in her bed.
Luis V. Benito, 17, of the 300 block of Woodcreek Drive, in Bolingbrook, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of aggravated DUI.
Josefina Prospero and her husband were asleep in bed when Benito crashed his SUV through the wall of their apartment unit in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2010. Josefina Prospero was pinned beneath the wheel of the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband, sleeping closer to the wall, was not injured.
Benito’s blood-alcohol level was .204 at the time of the crash, two and a half times the legal limit, the state's attorney's office said in court.
"An innocent woman lost her life because of Luis Benito’s selfish and reckless decision to get behind the wheel of an SUV when his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit," State's Atty. James Glasgow said in the release. "A prison term was the only justifiable sentence for causing this horrific fatal wreck."
