Trial

Naperville Sun 8-17-05

Man gets 18-year prison term in fatal DUI crash

By Bill Bird
STAFF WRITER

WHEATON — Prosecutors said the traffic collision was so powerful and horrific, it severed Naperville resident Gregory Vasich's aorta from his heart.
Despite pleas for leniency on behalf of the cocaine-addled motorist who triggered the crash that ended Vasich's life, a DuPage County Circuit Court judge ruled the other driver, Mark Schoger, should spend the next 18 years of his life behind bars.
Schoger, a 42-year-old homeless man, last lived in Montgomery. He was convicted in Mayof running a red light on April 9, 2004, while driving west on 75th Street at Naper Boulevard on Naperville's southeast side.
After hours of smoking crack cocaine and drinking beer, Schoger slammed his car into Vasich's, spinning the 23-year-old Naperville Central High School graduate's vehicle into a ditch and inflicting injuries from which he could not recover.
Judge Robert J.

Anderson on Monday sentenced Schoger to a total of 18 years in prison on charges of reckless homicide, aggravated driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident involving death or injury.
Assistant state's attorneys Tom O'Connor and Michael Reidy, who prosecuted the case, unsuccessfully argued that Anderson should impose the maximum 28-year sentence. Schoger's lawyers asked the judge to impose a six-year prison term.
Schoger and several supporters, including his father, asked Anderson for mercy, citing Schoger's drug rehabilitation while in jail and awaiting trial.
But O'Connor and Reidy pointed to Schoger's record, which included a prior DUI arrest and the fact that he was on probation for possession of a controlled substance at the time of the fatal crash.
Aurora resident Marlene Spells was riding with Schoger at the time of the collision. Trial testimony showed Schoger abandoned both Vasich and Spells and fled a few blocks to the northwest, where he was found later that morning hiding near a supermarket.
Spells testified she and Schoger met in Aurora the night before the crash, and that the two drove to the eastern part of DuPage County. O'Connor said Spells testified Schoger smoked crack and drank canned beer as they were making their way back to Aurora along 75th Street, just prior to the collision.
O'Connor said sentencing testimony also came from Vasich's parents, Milton and Carol Vasich; his girlfriend, Jennifer Ketchmark; and one of his three younger brothers.
8/17/05