Driver admits to speeding, but denies being drunk

Sandra Vasquez admits she was speeding down an Oswego street with a car full of drunken teen passengers after consuming up to two beers and a shot of Jagermeister.

But the Aurora woman tearfully denied Monday being intoxicated during a 2007 crash that killed five of her eight passengers.

Vasquez, 26, told a Kendall County jury the crash was the result of "a domino effect" after a back seat passenger bumped her seat, which prompted her to turn the wheel to the right as she instinctively glanced over her shoulder. After she looked back at the road, Vasquez said, bright lights appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Vasquez steered sharply to the left to avoid a head-on collision, she said, but instead smashed into a telephone pole along Route 31 near River Run Road.

"It was a split second," she said through sobs. "I saw a light right in front of me. I tried to avoid the car or whatever it was in front of me so it wouldn't hit us."

She continued: "I remember what I heard after we hit. I heard breathing. I heard someone screaming and crying. Then, I didn't hear anything."

Vasquez is accused of driving drunk about 2:20 a.m. Feb. 11, 2007, while giving a ride to eight stranded teens she encountered at an underage drinking party hosted by her 18-year-old cousin in Boulder Hill. She faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted of aggravated DUI and reckless homicide.

The jury is expected to begin its deliberations Tuesday after lawyers' closing arguments.

Experts on both sides agree Vasquez's 2001 Infiniti Q30 was speeding, going more than 70 mph in a 45 mph zone, before crashing just four miles from the party.

Oswego High School students Matthew Frank, 17; Katherine "Katie" Merkel, 14; James McGee, 14; Jessica Nutoni, 15; and Tiffany Urso, 16, were killed. Three other teens - Joshua Dillon, Robert Larsen Jr. and Arielle Rexford - survived but testified they can't recall what happened inside the car.

Vasquez said she consumed up to two beers and a shot of Jagermeister, mixed with an energy drink, from 11 p.m. to about midnight at a small family gathering. After midnight, Vasquez said, she and friend Anna DeLaCruz drove to another nearby house in the Boulder Hill neighborhood to pick up Vasquez's younger sister.

After waiting more than 30 minutes for Vanessa Vasquez to come out, the defendant testified, she and DeLaCruz went inside to fetch her and discovered the underage drinking party. Vasquez said she tried to help a group of drunken teens and clean up their mess. She denied drinking alcohol at the party, other than a sip of her sister's mixed drink to see if her sibling was lying about its content.

The owner of the home, Christina Melero, 42, who is the defendant's aunt, returned shortly after 1 a.m. and kicked the teenagers out. Melero, DeLaCruz and Vanessa Vasquez testified that the defendant appeared sober. She said it was one of the first times she drank alcohol since having her second child three months earlier.

Prosecutors estimate her blood-alcohol level was .124 percent, above the legal threshold of .08, but defense attorney Kathleen Colton questioned whether those results were accurate if Vasquez's stomach and liver injuries affected the rate in which her body absorbed alcohol.

A defense expert, John Bederka Jr., estimated Vasquez's blood-alcohol content in the legal range of .04 to .07 - with one drink still to be absorbed in her system - given her injuries. But, upon an intense cross examination, prosecutor Michael Reidy argued Bederka is not an actual toxicologist qualified to offer such an opinion.

Prosecutors said evidence from blood analysis, crash reconstruction, eyewitness testimony and Vasquez's own words prove her guilt. For example, Vasquez denied during her initial hospital police interview that she was the driver. Vasquez told police shortly later that she was behind the wheel but insisted she took it over from McGee, 14, because he was being reckless.

On Monday, Vasquez admitted she was the lone driver. Vasquez said she did not know the teens, but agreed to give Dillon and one other stranded boy a ride home because she felt sorry for them. Before she knew it, Vasquez said, several teens piled into her car and ignored her requests to get out. Vasquez gave in, she said, because they promised they would all get dropped off at one nearby location.

Upon cross examination, in which Kendall County State's Attorney Eric Weis repeatedly asked Vasquez if her choices were affected by alcohol, she admitted being a self-described "lead foot" and that having eight passengers wasn't safe. Still, Vasquez insisted that she "didn't feel the effects of the alcohol."

"I replayed this in my head thousands of times," she said through tears. "I don't have a better explanation for you. It was a domino effect. It just happened really fast."