Wheeling man convicted of 6th DUI
Arturo Carbajal admitted to police he was drinking before a three-car Wheeling accident July 14 at the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Apple Drive.
But the Wheeling resident insisted he wasn't driving.
Three witnesses, including Carbajal's estranged wife, disagreed. So did Cook Circuit Court Judge John Scotillo who found the 35-year-old man guilty of aggravated drunken driving following a bench trial Monday in Rolling Meadows Third Municipal District.
Carbajal, of the 1300 block of Wheeling Road, has been convicted of DUI five previous times in 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to six years in prison after the 2007 conviction but was out on parole. He faces between six and 30 years in prison when he's sentenced Jan. 26 for the latest conviction.
Carbajal's wife Irma Fausto, 28, testified that Carbajal was drunk when she met him earlier that evening at a park near the Wheeling apartment where she was staying with the couple's four children. She also testified that Carbajal's eyes were red and he did not speak clearly.
Fausto said that Carbajal asked her for a ride home in her car and insisted he would drive. She testified through an interpreter that he said, "he always did it and it would not be the first time."
Fausto initially resisted getting in the car with her husband, but relented because her 5-year-old son had already climbed in, she said.
After the crash, Carbajal left the scene, Fausto said. She later learned that Carbajal had gone to her house where he was arrested by Prospect Heights police officer Bill Caponigro a short time later.
Prosecutors introduced into evidence a letter Fausto received from an inmate at Cook County Jail. The return address listed a name she didn't recognize, but the handwriting belonged to her husband, Fausto said. An interpreter translated the letter which Fausto read to the court. In it, the writer asked Fausto to "tell them the truth, that I was not drinking ... that I was not drunk." The letter also read: "if they don't call you to court, don't say anything."
Under cross examination by defense attorney Constantine Vassilakopoulos, Fausto admitted that the writer never asked her to come into court and lie. Under Vassilakopoulos' questioning, Fausto also admitted buying a 12-pack of beer for Carbajal, who she said consumed three or four beers from about 9 p.m. until after midnight as they sat talking in her car.
The 20-year-old driver of the car hit by Carbajal testified he saw the defendant exit from the driver's side of the vehicle and later picked Carbajal out of a police photo lineup. Another victim, a 41-year-old man, on his way home from work at the time of the incident, also picked Carbajal out of a photo lineup. That man testified that he saw Carbajal walking away from the scene.
Caponigro said he believed Carbajal was "highly intoxicated" when he encountered him at Fausto's residence. The officer also described the defendant as "wobbly" with bloodshot, glassy eyes and a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath.