A 21-year-old Joliet man was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for a 2017 fatal hit-and-run in southwest suburban Bolingbrook.
Eduardo Avila pleaded guilty last month to one count of failure to stop after having an accident involving personal injury or death, according to the Will County state’s attorney’s office.
On Nov. 4, 2017, Avila was driving a 2002 Honda Accord when he struck 35-year-old Tricia Hoyt after she had left a party in Bolingbrook, prosecutors said.
Her body was found the following afternoon in a grassy area off Frontage Road, prosecutors said.
Though Avila fled the scene, he turned himself in to authorities about a week after the collision, prosecutors said.
“Our aggressive prosecution of this matter and today’s sentence sends the clear message that leaving the scene of a hit and run will bring severe consequences,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said. “This young man in a single moment changed his life and the life of so many others by thinking only about himself rather than thinking about trying to saving the victim he hit with his car.”
