A truck driver who struck and killed a 4-year-old boy on a South Side street while driving with a THC level more than three times the legal limit has been sentenced to four years in prison. Prosecutors said James Bernstein, 55, also had cocaine metabolites in his system at the time of the June 2, 2024, crash that killed Xyaire Askew in Avalon Park.
Bernstein was driving a 2021 dual-wheeled Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck when he made a right turn from 82nd Street onto Harper Avenue at about 4:30 p.m. and struck Xyaire, who had run into Harper Avenue while playing with friends, according to officials.
After hitting the child, Bernstein then “drove over the victim’s chest and head” as he “went to pull over” at the scene, prosecutors said in a detention petition. Xyaire was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital about 30 minutes later.
“He met no strangers, friendly with everybody,” Xyaire’s grandmother told the Chicago Sun-Times after the crash. “Once he meets you, he will remember you.”
Bernstein consented to chemical testing, according to a Chicago police report. Court records said an Illinois State Police laboratory found cocaine metabolites in his blood and a THC level of 18.4 nanograms per milliliter. Illinois law prohibits operating a motor vehicle with a THC level of 5 nanograms or more per milliliter of blood.
On Friday, Bernstein pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI causing a fatal crash in exchange for the four-year sentence from Judge Deominica Stephenson. He must serve 85% of the sentence.
During a December 2024 hearing, Judge Caroline Glennon-Goodman denied the state’s request to detain Bernstein and released him without electronic monitoring. As a result, he has earned only one day of credit toward his prison sentence.
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