Driver in fatal Elgin crash gets 6 years

An Elgin teen was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for a drunken-driving crash that killed his passenger.

Daniel Chagala-Villaseca, 19, pleaded guilty to aggravated driving under the influence and was sentenced in a plea deal accepted by Kane County Circuit Judge Timothy Q. Sheldon.

Chagala-Villaseca was driving west in the 600 block of East Chicago Street in Elgin, when his car went off the road about 1:25 a.m. on Nov. 7, hit a porch, and skidded to a stop 82 feet away. His front-seat passenger, Marcelo Martinez-Ayala, 26, of Elgin, was killed.

Chagala-Villaseca later told police he had consumed seven or eight beers and "probably was too drunk to be driving," according to the Kane County state's attorney's office.

Blood tests later revealed Chagala-Villaseca's alcohol concentration was 0.170 - or more than twice the legal limit for driving in Illinois - and turned up traces of marijuana, prosecutors said.

Chagala-Villaseca initially was charged with reckless homicide in addition to aggravated DUI, but prosecutors dismissed that charge as a result of Friday's negotiated plea.

Under state law, he must serve at least 85 percent of the six-year sentence, with 267 days credit for time served in the county jail since his arrest last year.