Almost one year after police arrested a motorist for crashing his vehicle into a crowd and causing incapacitating injury to at least one person, the suspect received his sentencing in Urbana, Illinois. Court documents show that Derek Overton, 24, of Champaign, got sentenced on Thursday, August 20th, to 18 years imprisonment in connection with the crime.
According to the court papers, on September 24, 2019, Overton drove his vehicle into a crowd clustered outside a liquor store. Initial accident reports revealed that at precisely 9:10 p.m. that Tuesday, a fight broke out in the parking lot of the store, located on the 2400 block of West Springfield Avenue, over Overton’s vehicle.
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After the fight, the suspect backed the vehicle into the crowd and struck several people before driving forward onto a sidewalk. His act of misconduct endangered the lives of the pedestrians on the sidewalk, as well as those among the crowd. However, Overton fled the scene without stopping to check on the struck victims.
32-year-old Jason Dudley, who was present during the onslaught, suffered severe spinal injury. Despite undergoing several rounds of surgery in the past few months, Dudley remains confined to a wheelchair. His injuries cost him the use of the lower half of his body.
During the Thursday, August 20 court hearing, Overton pleaded guilty to fleeing the scene of an accident with personal injury. Despite being a class 2 felony, the suspect, who had prior convictions, faced class x penalties for the crime.
Overton said he backed into the crowd to escape a confrontation with a gun. However, witnesses ascertained that no one threatened the suspect with a gun before the incident. Having served 253 days in jail since his arrest last December, the suspect would complete the rest of his sentence in a county jail.
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