Roselle man who killed wife in crash back in court

A Roselle man, who received probation last year after pleading guilty to a drunken-driving accident that killed his wife, is in trouble again.

DuPage County prosecutors asked a judge to revoke 35-year-old Walter McNally Jr.'s probation after he was arrested early last month on domestic battery and resisting arrest charges.

McNally is accused of throwing a glass of wine at the feet of his girlfriend during an argument Oct. 5 at the home they share in Roselle, according to court records. When police arrived to arrest him, McNally refused to get into the police car and struggled with the officers trying to get him inside the squad car.

McNally was free following his arrest, after posting 10 percent of a $5,000 bond. But prosecutors today asked that he be taken back into custody and his bond amount increased "substantially," Assistant State's Attorney Mike Pawl said. McNally's lawyer told Circuit Court Judge John Kinsella that his client had voluntarily checked into an inpatient treatment facility following his arrest. Kinsella postponed the bond hearing until Nov. 19 as McNally is expected to finished with his treatment by then.

Pawl said the higher bond amount is being sought because of McNally's failure to live up to the terms of his probation stemming from the crash that killed his wife, severely injured a family friend and crippled McNally.

"He killed his wife and put another woman in the hospital," Pawl said. "This was a very serious case."

McNally's wife and mother of his four children, Angie, was killed in the early morning hours of March 27, 2004 when he flipped the SUV he was driving east on the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway near Itasca after he hit a guard rail. Angie McNally and another woman riding in the car were thrown from the vehicle. None of the three people in the car was wearing seat belts, police said at the time. McNally and the other woman were critically injured, but survived.

At the time of his arrest in 2004, prosecutors said blood tests showed McNally had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system at the time of the crash and also tested positive for cocaine and marijuana. He faced up to 14 years in prison.

McNally eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated drunken driving in November 2007. Although he had pleaded guilty to a prior drunk-driving charge in 1997, McNally was sentenced to three years probation, 120 days in jail, 120 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine. The normally harsh-sentencing Associate Judge Mark Dwyer imposed the sentence in January 2008.

"We can talk about rehabilitation, retribution, punishment, or the need to send a message to the public," Dwyer said at the sentencing hearing. "But nothing this court can do will bring back his wife and mother of his children. He has to live with that, every day."

McNally and his wife married in 1997 and were high school sweethearts.