Crystal Lake man to driver accused of paralyzing him: ‘Enjoy prison life’
A Lakewood man who said he was trying to kill himself when he started a fire in his father’s home was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison for residential arson.
At the time of the 2023 fire, Connor Kirkpatrick was awaiting trial on charges he drove his vehicle into a Crystal Lake home about 10 months earlier, leaving the homeowner paralyzed.
A jury found Kirkpatrick, 30, guilty of residential arson in less than an hour in March.
Although Thursday’s hearing was for sentencing in the arson case, McHenry County prosecutors mostly focused on the reckless driving case, which was then dismissed.
Kirkpatrick had been charged with criminal damage, aggravated reckless driving and reckless conduct stemming from the July 27, 2022, crash. Authorities said Kirkpatrick, while naked, was driving a Subaru SUV almost 100 mph when it went airborne and crashed into the garage and the side of a Crystal Lake home.
Inside, Angelo Pleotis, 67, was just stepping out of the shower. From his motorized wheelchair Thursday, Pleotis recalled that he had just come home from work and the gym and was getting ready to meet his girlfriend when the SUV crashed into his home.
The impact sent him through the back wall of the bathroom and into another room. He woke the next day hospitalized in critical condition with a broken spine.
He has been in and out of rehabilitation facilities and hospitals since, and now lives in a residential independent living facility in McHenry, where he said he needs medical assistance “morning and night.” Except for occasional spasms, he said he feels nothing from his chest down.
Pleotis said that before the crash, he had been planning for his retirement, when he planned to buy some land and a boat so he could spend his days outdoors and fishing.
But now his time is spent in the wheelchair or in bed. He can’t spend time with his grandchildren or adult children like he used to, and he was unable to attend his daughter’s wedding. Instead, he watched it via livestream.
“Enjoy prison life. I’m sure you’ll meet some nice friends there,” he told Kirkpatrick in court last week.
In the arson case, prosecutors said Kirkpatrick used gasoline and sticks to set his father’s Lakewood home ablaze on May 20, 2023. At his trial, Kirkpatrick said he was trying to end his life due to the pain he suffered since crashing into Pleotis’ house.
Kirkpatrick’s attorney, William Bligh, referred to psychiatric evaluations and a doctor who said his client suffers from schizoaffective and bipolar disorders but was not being treated for his mental health.
“He lacks the ability to appreciate the criminality” of his actions, Bligh said.
When given the opportunity to speak, Kirkpatrick apologized for the “state” he and Pleotis are in.