Wheaton man receives six-plus years for drunken driving charge tied to fatal crash

A 33-year-old Wheaton man was sentenced Thursday to prison after pleading guilty to aggravated driving under the influence in connection to a 2019 crash that killed a 34-year-old passenger from Woodstock.

Shawn Brautigam was sentenced to 6½ years by McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge, according to a news release from the McHenry County state's attorney's office.

Brautigam was accused of driving with a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit on Nov. 24, 2019 while on Charles Road outside Woodstock, when a crash occurred causing the death of his passenger, Charles Akerberg, according to the release.

Brautigam was driving the rented Toyota Camry when it left the roadway and crashed into a series of sign posts, trees, a utility pole and fence post near the 11100 block of Charles Road, the Northwest Herald reported.

Akerberg was ejected from the vehicle and taken to Javon Bea Hospital - Riverside in Rockford, where he later died, records show. Brautigam and a Wheaton woman, who was asleep in the back seat at the time of the crash, were injured, police said at the time.

The case was investigated by members of the McHenry County sheriff's office and prosecuted by Neil Adams of the McHenry County state's attorney's office, according to the release.