COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Little Village man has been charged in the fatal crash that killed one man and critically wounded another after they were thrown from the bed of a pickup truck Sunday.
Accused driver Rafael Paz-Hernandez, 20, appeared in bond court Wednesday on charges of failing to report an accident causing injury and death.
"A life is lost and another life is hanging in there in the hospital," Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil said before setting bail at $250,000.
According to prosecutors, Paz-Hernandez was driving a 1999 Dodge Dakota through an alley parallel to the 2700 block of South Komensky Avenue when he entered the 4000 block of West 28th Street without slowing down.
That's where Paz-Hernandez hit a red Chevy Trailblazer before careening into a pole about 6:55 p.m. Sunday, Assistant State's Attorney Kristin Estrada said in court. The impact sent a 30-year-old passenger flying into the pole and tossed a 28-year-old passenger into a nearby storefront.
The 30-year-old man was pronounced dead on scene, Estrada said. The 28-year-old man was still hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday with a severe brain injury.
According to prosecutors, three people, including a 10-year-old girl, were riding in the Trailblazer at the time of the crash; but no one was injured. Five people rode in the pickup truck, including Paz-Hernandez, a front-seat passenger and three men riding in the bed.
Witnesses reported Paz-Hernandez running away after the crash.
The entire incident was captured on surveillance video.
A person dating Paz-Hernandez's sister on Monday took Paz-Hernandez to a police station, where he confessed to crashing the truck and running away because he was scared, prosecutors said.
Paz-Hernandez, of the 2300 block of South Avers Avenue, told police he had picked up drunk friends near 28th Street and Kostner Avenue and was driving them to a currency exchange near 26th Street and Pulaski Road, according to Estrada.
Assistant Public Defender Crystal Carbellos said Paz-Hernandez is a Honduran native who has worked in Chicago in construction for the past 2½ years.
If Paz-Hernandez posts bond, Kuriakos Ciesil said, he will be required to surrender his Honduras passport.
