Chicago — A heavily-intoxicated man, driving with a gun on his lap, slammed into another car at over 100 mph, killing two women and injuring several others on the Dan Ryan Expressway last month, prosecutors said Tuesday. The crash occurred in the inbound lanes near 47th Street around 10:50 p.m. January 22.
During a bail hearing yesterday, prosecutor Anne McCord said a driver hit the center divider, and a second driver pulled over to help him because he was partially blocking an exit ramp.
As a good Samaritan dragged a traffic cone to the broken-down car, 43-year-old Daphene Monroe, who was driving with three passengers, slowed down.
As Monroe decelerated, Marcus Holmes slammed into the back of her vehicle at 107 mph, killing Monroe and one of her passengers, Patrice Dean, 44. The other two passengers in Monroe’s car were also injured. McCord said the black box in Holmes’ car showed that he did not brake before the collision.
Monroe’s vehicle flipped on its side and struck the good Samaritan and the driver who had previously hit the median. Both of those men suffered severe injuries, McCord said.
Holmes suffered a broken hip and femur. A blood test at the hospital determined that, after conversion, he had a blood alcohol level of .215, well above the legal limit of .08, McCord said.
Chicago Fire Department paramedics who extracted Holmes from the wreckage found a loaded handgun on his crotch, according to McCord. Prosecutors charged him with Class X armed habitual criminal a couple of days after the crash, and he was released after posting a $500 bail bond.
Police arrested him on Monday to face additional charges of aggravated DUI resulting in death and aggravated DUI causing great bodily harm.
Judge Charles Beach ordered him to pay an additional $35,000 deposit toward bail to get out of jail on electronic monitoring.
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