Tricia Hoyt's Hit-And-Run Killer Gets Prison Sentence

JOLIET, IL — Eduardo Avila's sentencing Thursday for the Nov. 5, 2017, hit-and-run death of Tricia Hoyt, a mother of two small children, marked one of Will County Circuit Judge Dave Carlson's hardest cases ever, he told his packed courtroom. And because the 35-year-old woman's body was left on the side of the road for nine long hours before being found, the judge opted to sentence Avila to nine years prison at the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Avila received one year of prison time for every hour that Hoyt's body lay in the ditch.

About 16 family and close friends of Hoyt returned to the Will County Courthouse on Thursday. They've been a constant presence at the courthouse during all of Avila's key hearings. They also wore their aqua T-shirts that read "In Loving Memory Of Tricia Sunny Hoyt."

"I am very satisfied with the outcome and the judge," remarked Pam Swierczewski, a Frankfort resident who is the grandmother of Tricia Hoyt's two young children. Her son, Joe, is their father.

"Nine years was fair," the Frankfort woman told Patch after the sentencing. "The nine years, that was meaningful."

She said that Tricia Hoyt's two children are now 10 and 8, one boy and one girl.

"It's been a rough two years," Swierczewski explained.

At one point during Thursday's late morning hearing, Carlson held up a crime-scene photo for his entire courtroom gallery of spectators to see. The photo showed Hoyt's body in the ditch along the frontage road near I-55 in Bolingbrook.

Avila's mother began crying upon hearing the judge's decision to send her son off to prison for the next several years. Her son was 19 at the time of the crime, a Joliet Junior College student who was working in the cosmetics industry.

Until Thursday, Eduardo Avila had not spent any time in custody. His family posted his bail within hours of his arrest on two felony charges related to failing to report an accident causing injury/death, two years ago.

Several weeks ago, Avila pleaded guilty, and his second lesser included felony was dropped by the Will County State's Attorney's Office as part of the plea bargain.

On Thursday, Judge Carlson told everyone in his courtroom that if it was not for the exhaustive efforts put forth by Avila's private defense counsel, Paul Napolski of Joliet, Avila would have received the maximum possible prison term, which was 14 years.

Hoyt, who was from Tinley Park, was visiting friends at a party in Bolingbrook when she went for a walk along the frontage road. Avila was driving along the dark road and struck the pedestrian, but then decided to keep on driving.

The Bolingbrook Police Department immediately made solving the hit-and-run fatality its top priority. Within days of the crash, Bolingbrook detectives figured out that Avila, who lived in Joliet, was the culprit.

Family members of Hoyt told Patch on Thursday that Avila was hiding his damaged car inside a Kendall County garage belonging to a relative.

Carlson said he hoped Thursday's sentence of nine years prison would make other Will County teenagers and young adults think twice about committing a hit-and-run crime.

"This case, in so many ways, identifies so many of the problems we're dealing with as a society," Judge Carlson told everyone. "I can't help but be angered by the situation."

Carlson clarified that he was talking about "accountability and the ramifications of being accountable."

"This is one of the hardest cases I've dealt with," Carlson said, informing everyone he has sentenced several people during the past several years as a judge to natural life in prison and others to more than 100 years of prison.

"I hope to think that someone somewhere ... will think twice about leaving someone on the side of the road ... Ms. Hoyt was found in a ditch nine hours" after she was hit, Carlson said.

Carlson also directed comments at Avila, who arrived at his sentencing wearing a heavy black winter coat, dark pants and a buttoned shirt.

"One of the things that sickens me," the judge said, before pausing for several seconds, "when you drove away, you made a decision. You turned what was a tragic, tragic accident into a crime."

Carlson told everyone that he considered the idea of having everyone seated in his courtroom sit in complete silence for nine whole minutes on Thursday.

If nine minutes felt long to everyone in the courtroom, including Avila, imagine the pain and agony of being left on the side of the road for nine hours, the judge pointed out.

So at 11:55 a.m., about 15 minutes after the hearing began, Judge Carlson revealed that Avila would get a nine-year prison term. Avila's family hoped he would avoid serving any time in jail or prison. They hoped Carlson would grant leniency and give their son probation.

Avila put his hand on his head and looked down into his lap as the judge ordered him to prison. He, too, appeared surprised by the news.

At least eight members of Avila's family were seated in the courtroom and several of them began crying after hearing the sentence. Avila's mother's cried even more after the judge summoned one of the Will County Sheriff's Department's corrections officers to approach the defense lawyer table to take Avila away in handcuffs.

After the sentencing, Will County's State Attorney James Glasgow issued a press release.

“Sadly, no one will ever know whether Tricia Hoyt could have survived had authorities been contacted when the accident first occurred and had she not been left lying overnight in an isolated grassy area,” Glasgow stated. “Our aggressive prosecution of this matter and today’s sentence sends the clear message that leaving the scene of a hit and run will bring severe consequences. This matter is heartbreaking for everyone involved. This young man in a single moment changed his life and the life of so many others by thinking only about himself rather than thinking about trying to saving the victim he hit with his car.”

Glasgow also praised Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Slazyk and Victim Advocate Nichole Pasteris for their hard work and dedication on the case.