Joshua Spudich told police he had just snorted a line of heroin and was distracted by his cell phone when he caused a fatal crash in St. Charles last month, according to recently released court records.
St. Charles police said the 23-year-old St. Charles man admitted to driving to Chicago to purchase the drugs, which he snorted with friends just prior to the crash.
Susan Gorecki, 65, of St. Charles, was killed on Nov. 28 after Spudich crossed the center line with his vehicle, and crashed into the woman’s vehicle head-on.
The crash occurred around 2:05 p.m. near Route 31 and Timbers Trail, which was the same time Spudich, 400 block of South Second Street, St. Charles, was allegedly using his cell phone, St. Charles police said in an affidavit.
Spudich told police he was occupied with calls and texts when he swerved over the center line and crashed into Gorecki.
When police arrived, Spudich admitted to consuming marijuana and Valium the prior evening, He later admitted that he had snorted a line of heroin at a friend’s house just before getting on the road, records show.
Spudich agreed to giving blood and urine samples after his arrest. The urine sample indicated he had amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepine, marijuana, cocaine, opiates and phencyclidine in his system, police said.
During sobriety tests, police found a bag of .28 grams of suspected heroin on the vehicle’s floor. Spudich told police that it may have fallen from his coat pocket.
Two additional bags of suspected heroin were found in his sock and right shoe, police said.
According to police, a search of Spudich’s vehicle turned up a spoon with residue and a bottle of unidentified pills, as well as a syringe.
When giving a video recorded statement to police, Spudich allegedly said he was distracted by his cell phone and glanced down at it for a second as the crash occurred.
Police also learned he had a revoked licence.
Spudich was charged with multiple counts of felony driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, driving on a revoked licence, improper lane usage and no insurance.
In that early morning stop, Spudich recorded a blood-alcohol content level of .186. The state’s legal limit is .08 for drivers over the age of 21. He failed field-sobriety tests at that time. He admitted to police that he had been drinking before being pulled over on West State Street, court records state. Spudich was sentenced to a year of court supervision and to wear an alcohol-sensing bracelet after pleading guilty to DUI.
Prosecutors filed three different petitions to revoke his court supervision after Spudich failed to follow various terms of his sentence, including a requirement to refrain from drinking. Eventually, in April 2012, a judge resentenced Spudich to 200 days in Kane County Jail.
Druker said Spudich was eligible to seek reinstatement of his license in 2012, but did not take any steps toward doing so.
Spudich’s history also shows a second 2010 ticket for illegal transportation of alcohol and 2011 convictions for misdemeanor battery and theft, records show.
Dan Campana contributed to this article
