A West Side man stabbed a man to death during an argument on Thursday, just four days after he was allowed out of jail on felony DUI charges for $500 bail, according to prosecutors and court records. Patrick O’Reilly, who also has a felony gun case pending in DuPage County, was arrested Friday after he allegedly crashed his car while driving drunk again.
O’Reilly is the 11th person charged with killing or shooting — or trying to shoot or kill — someone in Chicago this year while awaiting trial for a felony. The alleged crimes involve at least 18 victims, five of whom died.
“The allegation is you brought a knife to a fistfight,” Judge Mary Marubio summarized before ordering him held without bail. Coincidentally, Marubio is the same judge who set O’Reilly’s bail conditions in his pending DUI case just days earlier.
The alleged murder happened around 4:38 p.m. in the back yard of the home O’Reilly shared with a friend and the friend’s mother. The victim, 47-year-old Estevan Lopez, was in a relationship with the woman.
All four were “lounging and drinking” in the home when O’Reilly got involved in an argument Lopez and the roommate’s mother were having over a bus pass, Assistant State’s Attorney Danny Hanichak said.
Eventually, Lopez and O’Reilly agreed to go into the yard and fight, Hanichak alleged. Lopez stepped into the yard and waited for O’Reilly with his hands at his side and no weapons.
O’Reilly allegedly grabbed a kitchen knife on his way out and plunged it into Lopez’s chest. He then returned to the home, washed the knife in the kitchen sink, and left, according to Hanichak.
Lopez’s girlfriend and O’Reilly’s friend were both in the yard and witnessed the murder, Hanichak said.
Police arrested O’Reilly on Friday after he crashed while driving drunk near the 3900 block of South Prairie, according to police and prosecutors. It was the second time he had been arrested for DUI after crashing this month.
Around 6 a.m. on March 19, police allegedly found O’Reilly asleep and unresponsive behind the wheel of a crashed car on the 1900 block of West Bryn Mawr. The vehicle’s front tire was blown out, the car was still in drive, and cops found an open, mostly-empty bottle of whiskey on the passenger floorboard, prosecutors told Judge Marubio the next day. And, police learned, the car was stolen.
Once he regained consciousness, O’Reilly allegedly told officers that they couldn’t arrest him for DUI because he was “parked.” They arrested him anyway.
Prosecutors charged him with aggravated DUI, driving without ever being issued a license, and criminal trespass to a vehicle. Prosecutors also told Marubio about O’Reilly’s pending felony gun case in DuPage County. She allowed him to go home upon posting of a $500 deposit.
On Monday, an assistant public defender said O’Reilly has attended church “every Sunday for the last two years” and works as an auto body repair mechanic.
The “not horrible” series
This report continues our coverage of individuals who have been accused of murder, attempted murder, or shooting firearms toward people while on bond for a pending felony case. CWBChicago began our series of reports in November 2019 after Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans publicly stated, “we haven’t had any horrible incidents occur” under the court’s bond reform initiative.
The actual number of murders and shootings committed by people on felony bail is undoubtedly much higher than the numbers seen here. Since 2017, CPD has made arrests in less than 5% of non-fatal shootings and 33% of murders, according to the city’s data. You can support CWBChicago’s work by becoming a subscriber today.
