Man Gets 20 Years In Clarendon Hills Fatal Crash

CLARENDON HILLS, IL — A drunken driver who killed two people in a head-on crash in 2019 in Clarendon Hills was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison, authorities said.

Last October, Juan Rodea-Cruz, 27, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated DUI causing death.

The crash happened shortly before 3 a.m. Oct. 20, 2019, in the southbound lanes of Route 83, just north of 55th Street. Rodea-Cruz has been in the DuPage County Jail since then.

While driving on the wrong side of the road, Rodea-Cruz crashed into a car with four passengers head-on, police said. Two of the passengers, Laura Uribe, 26, of La Grange, and Marko Boskovic, 27, of Revere, Massachusetts, died at a local hospital as a result of their injuries. Two 27-year-old men from Massachusetts were hospitalized, but survived, police said.

After the crash, officers found Rodea-Cruz alone in his car with many opened and unopened bottles of beer as a well as a broken bottle of liquor, authorities said.

"This case is the definition of a tragedy," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement. "The senseless loss of two innocent lives will forever be on the shoulders of Mr. Rodea-Cruz. His decision to operate a motor vehicle after he had been drinking cost Marko Boskovic and Laura Uribe their lives. To Marco’s and Laura’s surviving family and friends, I offer my sincerest condolences and wish them well as they continue their lives with just the memories of Marko and Laura to sustain them."

Rodea-Cruz will be required to serve 85 percent of his sentence. He is set to receive credit for time he has already served in jail. That means he could be released in 15 years, 2037.