Palatine man already convicted in fatal DUI pleads guilty to another DUI
A Palatine man who already served a prison sentence for killing a teen in a 2003 drunken driving crash pleaded guilty Monday to another DUI charge, officials said.
James T. Stitt, who was in the middle of his bench trial before Judge Thomas Fecarotta in the Rolling Meadows courthouse, changed his plea to guilty Monday and was sentenced to two years in prison, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Gerber said.
Stitt pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI, a Class 3 felony, stemming from a November 2014 crash in which he drove into two parked cars on Palatine's north side and was found asleep at the wheel, authorities said.
The conviction means another trip to prison for Stitt, who went in 2004 after pleading guilty to a reckless homicide charge stemming from the death of Caitlin Weese, a 17-year-old student at Larkin High School in Elgin.
Authorities at the time said Stitt, then a Lake Zurich resident, had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal threshold and marijuana in his system on May 22, 2003, when his vehicle veered into oncoming traffic on Route 72 near Gilberts. His car collided head-on with one driven by Caitlin, who died two days later.
Caitlin, authorities said, had been driving home to Wonder Lake after buying an outfit to wear at her high school graduation, which would have been eight days later. A roadside marker reading "Please don't drink and drive" and memorializing Caitlin stands near the crash site.
Stitt was sentenced to 7½ years in prison and paroled in 2009 after serving the minimum 85 percent of his sentence the law requires.
Gerber said he spoke to the father of Caitlin Weese over the weekend. The father was satisfied with the possible guilty plea and sentence as long as Stitt went to the penitentiary, Gerber said.
A Class 3 felony is punishable by two to five years in prison, Gerber said. Stitt will have to serve 50 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, he said.
In addition to these two DUIs, Stitt's background includes a 1997 DUI conviction for which he received supervision, prosecutors said. He also has a 2001 reckless driving conviction from Lake County.
Daily Herald staff writers Christopher Placek and Charles Keeshan contributed to this report.