A man is accused of driving drunk Sunday when he crashed his BMW in the South Side Englewood neighborhood, killing his 25-year-old passenger.
Michael Cunningham, 36, of the Woodlawn neighborhood, faces charges of reckless homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol/causing a death, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Officers responded to the crash about 4:30 a.m. in the 700 block of West 69th Street, according to Chicago Police.
Moments before, Cunningham was likely driving between 73 and 80 mph as he headed east on 69th Street toward Emerald Avenue, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video from a nearby store recorded Cunningham lose control of his 2004 BMW M5 as it crossed the center line, went backwards into the opposite lanes of traffic, jumped a curb and slammed into a wooden planter box, according to authorities.
Prosecutors said the BMW crashed with such force that the car’s truck separated from the rest of the vehicle, uprooted a tree and pushed a parked SUV several feet into traffic.
When emergency crews arrived, the car was lying on the sidewalk and tipped on its passenger side, according to police records.
Cunningham was found unresponsive and hanging from the driver’s seat over his passenger, Mattulia Robinson. Both were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where Robinson was pronounced dead, prosecutors and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
Robinson lived in the Chatham neighborhood, according to police reports.
Cunningham was found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.206 following the crash, prosecutors said. He was still hospitalized in serious condition Tuesday when Judge David Navarro denied him bail.
Cunningham has a 2006 felony conviction for manufacture and/or delivery of a controlled substance, as well as a 2013 misdemeanor conviction for DUI, prosecutors said.
His next court date was scheduled for Sunday.
