COOK COUNTY CRMINAL COURTHOUSE — A former North Chicago police officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday in connection with a fatal DUI car crash on Lake Shore Drive in March 2013.
Terrell Garrett pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated DUI and received his sentence Friday.
Garrett was originally charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI after prosecutors said the former cop caused an accident that killed Fabian Torres, 27 and Joaquin Garcia, 25.
Garrett had been celebrating his 35th birthday in the early morning hours of March 15, 2013, when he allegedly got behind the wheel of his SUV while drunk, prosecutors said.
He drove the wrong way onto the southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive at LaSalle Street and continued for about 2 miles before crashing head-on into a Jeep the Belmont Avenue exit.
During the sentencing, Garrett apologized before the court for what he had done, but the apology fell short for Fabian Torres' mother, who felt it was not sincere.
"Never once has he ever said 'I'm sorry,' not his family, not him," Maria Torres said. "I have never seen that man remorse[ful] for killing two people."
Torres also said she wanted to see Garrett receive more than 10 years.
"He's a police officer. He swore to do right by us, to protect us and instead, I get someone that kills my baby," Torres said. "He does not know what he took from me."
Cecilia Garcia, Joaquin Garcia's mother, also said the sentence handed down Friday was not satisfying.
"Nothing could be acceptable," Garcia told reporters. "I feel my son's life was worth more than 10 years."
But Garcia said she was able to forgive the man that killed her son.
"I have to, just to go on with life," she said. "Holding a grudge...it's not hurting nobody else except me, and I have to forgive to go on with life."
