A South Side man charged in a deadly drunken driving accident that left the victim with a severed arm over the weekend was convicted in three previous DUIs, including a 1995 crash that claimed the life of a senior citizen.
Dwayne Montgomery was speeding in his girlfriend’s Dodge Intrepid without a valid driver’s license Saturday afternoon when he lost control and hit a light pole in the 8200 block of South Chicago Avenue, killing the sole passenger, 44-year-old Tremayne Bonds, Cook County prosecutors said.
Bonds had his right arm severed when the passenger side of the car was sliced off when it slammed into the pole, Assistant State’s Attorney Alexandra Molesky said.
Bonds also was ejected from the vehicle before landing next to the passenger side of the car, bleeding, Molesky said.
He later died at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
It wasn’t the first time Montgomery took a life when he allegedly got behind the wheel intoxicated, Molesky said at the 37-year-old’s bond hearing Tuesday.
In 1995, Montgomery rammed his vehicle into another car, killing 70-year-old Lucius McSwain at the intersection of 55th and Martin Luther King Drive.
Montgomery was speeding without his headlights on and went through a red light when he broadsided McSwain’s car, according to the State’s Attorney’s office.
Montgomery was convicted of reckless homicide in 1996 and was sentenced to four years in prison for that incident.
He also has a 2004 aggravated DUI conviction, a 1995 misdemeanor DUI and four convictions for driving on a suspended or revoked license.
This weekend, a witness saw Montgomery get out of his car and walk to the passenger side after the crash, Molesky said.
Another witness saw the injured Bonds and noticed blood on the passenger side of the car.
Montgomery, who remained on the scene, had red, glassy bloodshot eyes and was mumbling and slurring when he spoke, Molesky said.
Officers also smelled alcohol on his breath and found a bottle of vodka in his car, Molesky said.
Montgomery, who appeared in court in a paper gown, allegedly had a blood-alcohol level of .317 — almost four times the state’s legal .08 limit.
He was combative when officers tried to speak with him and later told them, “I was not the driver. He was the driver. I told him to let me drive,” a police report said.
Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Montgomery held in lieu of $1 million bail Tuesday for aggravated DUI involving a death.
Montgomery, of the 2800 block of East 83rd Street, is a father of one and works for a moving company, according to an assistant public defender.
