Seven-year sentence in fatal DuPage County DUI crash
A motorist was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison for a drunken high-speed crash near Willowbrook that ended deadly.
Jerry P. Kavouras received the prison term after the 32-year-old Orland Park man pleaded guilty to aggravated drunken driving and failing to stop after the fatal crash.
Prosecutor David Bayer said an intoxicated Kavouras was speeding nearly 90 mph at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 31, 2006, when his 2004 Chevy Silverado veered into oncoming traffic on Route 83 near Bluff Road. Kavouras fled on foot afterward.
"About 45 minutes later, other deputies found the defendant bleeding from the head hiding in a forest preserve area," Bayer said.
Bayer said Kavouras later admitted to drinking 12 beers. His blood-alcohol level was a .131, nearly twice the legal threshold of .08.
The crash killed Ronald Corvo, of LaGrange, who had just celebrated his 43rd birthday days earlier. Corvo, who ran a Villa Park auto repair shop, left behind a wife, Cathy, and two children, Angela, 21, and Ron, 19.
The family endured 2.5 years of monthly court proceedings as the case languished in court.
"I don't know if there ever is a sense of closure," Cathy Corvo said afterward, "but at least there's a part we won't have to relive over and over again."
Relatives spoke in court of the physical, emotional and financial anguish they've suffered since the fatal crash.
Ronald Corvo's older sister also was killed by a suspected drunken driver nearly two decades earlier. That driver also fled, but was never apprehended. The second loss of a child was too much for Corvo's 80-year-old mother to handle, family members said. She died about one year later.
"If you want to say you're sorry, save it," Steve Corvo said of his cousin's death. "No one wants to hear it. We hope you can never get the image of what you've done out of your head. You had a choice. You could have called a cab."
Kavouras, also a married father of two, did not have a prior criminal record. He apologized to the Corvo family before deputies led him away to begin his sentence.
"There's not a day or night that I do not think about your loss or the accident," Kavouras said. "I know you think that I don't care, but I really do. I didn't mean for this to happen, but I do accept responsibility. I hope, someday, you can forgive me."
Kavouras faced up to 14 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving about 4.5 years of the sentence.
DuPage Circuit Judge John Kinsella presided over Thursday's plea deal. He lamented the senselessness of the crime.
"Of course there's no magic number of years, whether seven or 70, that's going to change the horrible tragedy that came from the choices you made that night," Kinsella told Kavouras. "There's no balancing of the scales. There's no sentence that will bring back a husband, a father, a brother and son."