Bail Set At $150K for Oak Lawn Woman Charged In Fatal Tinley Park Hit and Run

Jacqueline Cummings, 21, of Oak Lawn | Tinley Park Police

The 21-year-old woman charged in the July 18 fatal hit and run accident of a McHenry County woman was making a call on her cell phone when the crash occurred, prosecutors said in court on Wednesday.

Jacqueline Cummings, of Oak Lawn, appeared before Cook County Judge Peter Felice in Bridgview, where she is facing Class 1 felony charges of reckless homicide and failure to report an accident involving a death.

The young woman, wearing a sleeveless gray top and gray leggings, choked back tears during the court proceeding.

>>>> Driver Charged in Fatal Hit-and-Run in Tinley Park

Prosecutors said that Cummings was driving a carload of passengers in the 19100 block of Oak Park Avenue shortly after midnight Saturday, when the Oak Lawn woman fatally struck 54-year-old Luisa Domantay, of Greenwood, IL.

According to the charges, Domantay and her boyfriend were walking in the street after leaving the Jason Aldean concert at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in Tinley Park. Cummings, driving her 2005 Jeep Cherokee in a southwest direction on Oak Park Avenue, struck Domantay and then fled the scene.

Domantay was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox where she later died from her injuries.

Prosecutors said that passengers in the car told investigators they saw Cummings dialing a number on her cell phone when her vehicle when they “heard a crash.”

As she fled the scene the accident, prosecutors said that Cummings sideswiped a patrol car with its emergency lights activated that was investigating another accident in the area.

Instead of going back or calling police, Cummings continued to run, prosecutors alleged. Tinley Park police were searching for the driver, later identified as Cummings, for several days following the weekend’s accident. Felony charges were approved Tuesday. Tinley Park police announced Cummings’ arrest on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said there was no indication that Cummings was driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident.

Oak Lawn attorney Bob Olson told the judge his client was a single parent and mother of a 3-year-old daughter. Cummings and her daughter lived with her father and grandmother in Oak Lawn.

Cummings is a full-time student at Moraine Valley Community College and was one credit away from her associate’s degree, after which, she planned to go to nursing school. She also worked part time in addition to going to school.

“She is not a flight risk,” Olson said. “Both her parents are in court today.”

“Mr. Olson, you tell me she’s not a flight risk and yet I just heard the [charges] where witnesses said they heard the crash and she did not call anyone,” Judge Felice said. “That’s disturbing to the court.”

The judge ordered bail set at $150,000, with ten percent to apply. Should Cummings bond out, she is to be under electronic home monitoring and required to submit to random urine drops.

Cummings has no prior criminal background or DUIs, except for three speeding tickets, prosecutors said.

Olson said Cummings turned herself into Tinley Park police Monday. She is also charged with traffic offenses including failure to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle, improper lane use, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, failure to signal and use of a wireless phone in an emergency zone.

Cummings is due back in court on August 18.

This story has been updated with new information.