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Fatal Accident Driver Pleads Guilty

WVIK Staff

The woman accused of killing a teenager as he walked along Interstate 88 last year, has made a deal with prosecutors. 

Today 42 year old Maria Romero from Rockford pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death, and a second count for failing to report the accident was dismissed.
Police say 17 year old Emilio Perez from Villa Park Illinois was walking along I-88 near Joslin in March of 2014 when he was hit by a car driven by Romero. She then drove away. But Perez's parents began a concerted campaign, using billboards and other advertisements, to find the driver. 
Their effort eventually paid off when someone called Crime Stoppers, and police arrested Romero last September.
Her trial was scheduled to start in July. 
 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.