Woman pleads guilty to fatal Riverside DUI crash

A west suburban woman pleaded guilty Friday to being the driver in a 2011 DUI crash that left one man dead in Riverside.

Magali Padilla, 28, pleaded guilty to being behind the wheel at the time of the rollover crash on Dec. 7, 2011, according to a statement from Riverside police. The vehicle she was driving struck a tree at Longcommon and Delaplaine roads at 11:43 p.m. before rolling over several times and landing in a front yard in the 200 block of North Delaplaine.

Both Padilla and 26-year-old Cesar Ramirez were ejected from the vehicle in the crash, police said. Ramirez, who lived in the 2500 block of South 75th Street in Woodridge, was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood shortly after the crash.

Padilla initially told investigators that Ramirez was the driver in the crash, when he was actually the passenger, police said. However, evidence at the scene did not support her story, and police later obtained a video showing Padilla driving the vehicle out of a restaurant parking lot eight blocks away at 11:40 p.m., just three minutes before the crash.

Padilla was arrested at her home in the 1400 block of South 51st Avenue in Cicero on July 7, 2012, according to police. She was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI causing a death.

After Padilla pleaded guilty Feb. 5, Cook County Circuit Judge Paula Daleo sentenced her to two years of felony probation, twelve days of time served and a victim impact panel, police said. She was also ordered to pay $2,489 in fines and court costs.