Man gets year of periodic imprisonment for fatal DUI crash in 2013

A Downers Grove man has been sentenced to a year of periodic imprisonment for a fatal DUI crash in that killed his friend in 2013 in Oak Brook.

Judge Daniel Guerin sentenced 51-year-old William Decero to a year of periodic imprisonment in the DuPage County Jail on Friday, according to a statement from the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.

Decero and his friend, 48-year-old Thomas Fitzsimons, were in a vehicle southbound on Spring Road just south of 31st Street in Oak Brook at 12:04 a.m. Sept. 22, 2013, prosecutors said. They were in Fitzsimons’ vehicle, but Decero was driving. He lost control of the vehicle, which swerved off the road and crashed into a wooded area.

Fitzsimons was pronounced dead at the scene while Decero was taken to a hospital for treatment, prosecutors said. His blood-alcohol content was 0.139 at the time of the crash.

“This is a tragic case in which there are no winners,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in the statement. “Mr. Decero’s horrible decision to get behind the wheel after he had been drinking cost a life-long friend his life and devastated two families.”

Decero, of the 5400 block of Washington Street in Downers Grove, pleaded guilty to a Class 2 felony count of aggravated DUI on Aug. 14, 2015, according to prosecutors. He will begin serving his one-year sentence immediately, but will be allowed to leave the jail for work and counseling sessions. He will also be required to serve four years of probation after his release.

Fitzsimons’ wife, Maureen Fitzsimons, claims in a lawsuit that Decero was speeding and failed to stop the vehicle in time to avoid going off the road. The suit claims the death of her husband, an attorney, has caused a loss of companionship, “guidance, attention and advice” for her and their two children.

The suit, filed in Cook County, seeks unspecified damages.