A Round Lake man was sentenced to three years in prison for killing his mother in high-speed crash after recklessly running a red light in McHenry.
Emmet Zywiec, of Round Lake, pleaded guilty to a single count of reckless homicide involving a motor vehicle in front of McHenry County Circuit Court Judge Mark Gerhardt Wednesday, court records show.
Zywiec is only required to serve 50 percent of the prison sentence after pleading guilty of the class 3 felony, court records show.
He will receive credit for 476 days he served in McHenry County jail while awaiting trial.
Remaining counts of reckless homicide, aggravated reckless driving resulting in bodily harm, and two misdemeanor traffic cases were dropped in exchange for the plea deal, court records show.
Zywiec was heading eastbound on Route 120 at 82 mph when he ignored a red traffic signal and slammed into a 2012 Hyundai Veloster at Curran Road on June 17, 2021, police said.
The force of the crash caused the Crown Victoria to drive off the roadway and come to a rest upright in a drainage ditch in the southeast corner of the intersection, police said.
Zywiec was uninjured, but passenger Gabrielle Zywiec, 52, of Wonder Lake, was seriously injured and trapped inside the vehicle.
It took firefighters approximately 15 minutes to extricate the mother from the vehicle, police said.
She was flown by a LifeNet medical helicopter to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville where she later died.
Two of the four people in the Hyundai were transported from the scene to Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Zywiec was initially cited for disobeying a traffic control signal and operating an uninsured motor vehicle, but charges were upgraded to felonies Nov. 8, 2021.
The criminal complaint stated Zywiec was driving with a “willful and wanton disregard for the safety” by traveling 82 mph in the 45 mph zone at the time of the crash.