CHICAGO — Just ten days after getting out of prison for his eighth felony conviction, Karris Turner caused a crash on the Dan Ryan Expressway that left a woman paralyzed and his new girlfriend with two badly broken legs, officials say. Turner, 35, bolted from the wreckage without helping anyone, and he never reported the crash or called 911, according to the allegations.
State troopers were assisting a motorist on the Ryan near 43rd Street when they saw the crash occur in the inbound express lanes around 3:20 a.m. on August 11. They went to the scene and found a woman lying on the pavement and five cars damaged.
Their investigation determined that Turner, driving with his 24-year-old girlfriend in the front passenger seat, struck another vehicle, setting off a chain reaction crash, officials said.
Turner’s Hyundai spun around and struck a 36-year-old woman who was standing outside of her SUV on the shoulder, prosecutors said in a detention petition. She was the woman found on the pavement and, according to a court filing, the crash left her paralyzed.
Officials said Turner’s girlfriend underwent multiple surgeries to repair her broken legs.
State police investigators tried to locate Turner for weeks and eventually decided to secure an arrest warrant on October 1, according to an ISP statement. Chicago police officers recently arrested him during a traffic stop.
Judge William Fahy detained Turner as a flight risk and on a parole warrant from the Illinois Department of Corrections. Turner returned to prison last week and is expected to stay there until August 1, when his four-year sentence for aiding the escape of a felon will end, according to IDOC. He is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving injury.
His previous convictions include being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2019; narcotics-related charges in 2017, 2013, and 2007; and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to a peace officer in 2008.
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