A judge handed down a 20-year sentence this week to a man accused of fatally stabbing another man in a dispute over a bus pass. Patrick O’Reilly, 29, had been on felony bail for a DUI case for just four days when he allegedly committed the murder in March 2022. He was also on bail for a felony gun case from DuPage County.
Around 6 a.m. on March 19, 2022, Chicago 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 said at the time. Officials said the car was also 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 Judge Mary Marubio about O’Reilly’s pending gun case in DuPage County. Nonetheless, she allowed him to go home after he posted a $500 deposit.
Four days after he walked out of jail, O’Reilly allegedly murdered a man in the backyard of a West Side home he shared with a friend.
Prosecutors said O’Reilly, his roommate, the roommate’s mom, and 47-year-old Estevan Lopez were “lounging and drinking” in the home when O’Reilly got involved in an argument that Lopez and the roommate’s mother were having over a bus pass.
Eventually, Lopez and O’Reilly agreed to go into the yard and fight. Lopez stepped into the yard and waited for O’Reilly with his hands at his side and no weapons.
But 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, prosecutors said.
The other two people who had been hanging out with O’Reilly and Lopez saw the attack.
Police arrested O’Reilly days later after he once again crashed while driving drunk near the 3900 block of South Prairie, according to prosecutors. This marked O’Reilly’s second DUI arrest following a crash that same month.
This week, O’Reilly pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in exchange for the 20-year sentence from Judge Peggy Chiampas. While inmates must serve 100% of their sentences for first-degree murder, they need only serve 50% of the time for second-degree.
O’Reilly is expected to be paroled in February 2032. He pleaded guilty to the DuPage County gun case last year and received a three-year sentence.
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