Jail, probation for woman who used car to run down boyfriend in Lombard

Calling her vague apology a "cryptic acceptance of (her) behavior," DuPage County Judge Robert Miller said he felt Elizabeth Donatelli's refusal to say exactly what she was sorry for Tuesday was her way of "keeping it in reserve to deny culpability at a later date."

But Miller didn't think sending the 21-year-old Chicago woman to prison would meet the ends of justice either.

Donatelli pleaded guilty in January to aggravated driving under the influence in exchange for prosecutors dropping charges of aggravated domestic battery, aggravated battery in a public way and reckless driving.

Miller sentenced her Tuesday to 180 days in DuPage County jail, 30 months of probation, substance abuse counseling, and to wear an alcohol detection anklet for the duration of her probation.

Donatelli and her boyfriend, Michael McCabe, 22, had been arguing over infidelity in a car he was driving July 23. They said McCabe eventually pulled the white four-door Toyota sedan over at 5:19 a.m. near the intersection of Main and Ash streets in Lombard and began walking away.

Donatelli, who was later found to have a .143 blood alcohol content and cocaine and marijuana in her system, then jumped in the driver's seat and stalked McCabe before eventually jumping the curb and running him down, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors played a video statement from Katie Hurst, who lives near the scene.

In it, Hurst said she was sleeping restlessly around 5 a.m. when she heard an argument on the sidewalk below.

"Then I heard the revving of an engine and then the impact," Hurst said on the video. "It wasn't a metal-on-metal sound. It was a thud."

When Hurst got up and looked, she saw McCabe lying in the street and Donatelli trying to pick him up.

According to an agreed stipulation read by Assistant State's Attorney Bethany Jackson, McCabe suffered extensive skull fractures with multiple bruises on his brain, a broken leg and multiple facial fractures.

McCabe's mother, Alicia Hogan, told Miller during her victim-impact statement that she "lost it" when she returned to Illinois from her home state of Arkansas to see her son "hooked up to all of those machines."

She said McCabe's brain injury has caused him to lose control of his impulses, sometimes causing fits of anger. He also suffers from short-term memory loss and has lost his sense of smell and taste.

"He may be 22 but with his brain injury, it's like he's 13," Hogan said. "I lost the son I once knew on the day the defendant hit him with her car."

In interviews with police several hours after the crash, Donatelli told officers several times that McCabe jumped in front of her car and insisted her car never left the road before invoking her right to remain silent until her attorney was present.

She apologized Tuesday to McCabe and his family and told Miller that "part of (her) will always love (McCabe)" and that she prays for him and his family every night.

She told Miller that she has turned her life around in the eight months since the crash and continues to seek therapy for depression, stress and anxiety.

Donatelli was given two weeks to get her affairs in order before beginning her six-month sentence.

Outside of court, McCabe said he was satisfied with the sentence.

"It's fine," he said. "She needs health help and I hope she gets it."

On Feb. 1, Donatelli was served with an order of protection requiring her to have no contact with McCabe and to stay away from any medical or rehabilitation facilities he is in until 5 p.m. Aug. 10, 2018.