COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — DNA and cellphone evidence have linked Adrian Segura to a fatal 2014 Humboldt Park crash, prosecutors said Thursday.
Segura, 23, was extradited from Kansas City, Mo., this week and charged with reckless homicide and failure to report an accident causing death in the Dec. 7, 2014, crash in the 2700 block of West Division Street.
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According to prosecutors, Segura was driving a stolen Honda CR-V when he passed a CTA bus, ran a stop sign, careened off a pole and hit a Ford Escort head-on about 8 a.m.
Segura and a passenger got out of the Honda and ran away — before returning to the SUV, searching for something and running away again, Assistant State's Attorney Jason Coelho said during a bond hearing Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, 2650 S. California Ave.
The Ford Escort's driver, 66-year-old Bessie English, was pronounced dead at 9:22 a.m. at a nearby hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Police found Segura's cellphone inside the stolen Honda, prosecutors said. Multiple photos of Segura were stored on the phone.
DNA testing would later match Segura's DNA to samples taken from the driver's side airbag, and the lid and straw of a Burger King drink, Coelho said. A witness identified Segura as the driver.
After the crash, Segura fled to Mexico and California before eventually moving to Kansas City, Mo., according to court testimony. Prosecutors said Segura has a prior juvenile conviction for residential burglary.
Defense attorney Peter Petrakis on Thursday said Segura has a GED and is not a flight risk. Petrakis noted that Segura wasn't charged immediately after the crash and only traveled to Mexico to visit an ailing grandmother. Segura lived with relatives in California, the attorney said, and has been working for a family-owned drywall company in Missouri.
Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. set bail at $50,000 after Petrakis said Segura would be able to post $5,000. Defendants must post 10 percent of their total bail amount to go free pending trial.
Should Segura post bond, Lyke said, he will be required to wear an electronic-monitoring bracelet.
"The state's proffer is troubling ... [but] this defendant stands before me presumed innocent," Lyke said. "I do not believe that he is a flight risk."
