An Illinois boater accused of being drunk and who has a prior history of driving under the influence decapitated a woman when he slammed into her boat at roughly 80 mph over the weekend, prosecutors said.
Richard Stevenson, 45, allegedly drove his 31-foot pontoon at high speed into the rear of a smaller boat in a no-wake zone on the Fox River in Illinois on Saturday, killing a 48-year-old woman and injuring her husband after what authorities described as a day of heavy drinking, according to the McHenry County State Attorney’s Office.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was decapitated and pronounced dead at the scene, prosecutors said during Stevenson’s Monday hearing, where a judge ordered him held in custody pending trial, ABC7 Chicago reported.
“This man was a ticking time-bomb and that bomb went off this past Saturday on the Fox River,” Deputy Chief Brian Miller argued at Stevenson’s detention hearing.
When officers arrived, Stevenson was found standing near the pontoon boat along the treeline. He was brought to Northwestern Hospital in McHenry, where testing showed his blood alcohol concentration was about .200 — two and a half times the legal driving limit.
Two other people who had been aboard the pontoon had already left before police got to the scene.
Investigators were told by multiple witnesses that Stevenson had been drinking throughout the day. Surveillance footage also showed him operating the watercraft at extremely high speeds on the Fox River and the connected Chain O’Lakes before the crash, which happened around 2:30 p.m. Saturday in McHenry.
Prosecutors said Stevenson reached speeds of up to 80 mph when he ran over the 20-foot Crownline.
Stevenson was arrested and charged with reckless homicide and two counts of aggravated driving under the influence.
Stevenson had been charged with drunk driving on three previous occasions, as well as reckless driving three times, and has four misdemeanor speeding offenses, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Stevenson is due to appear in court next on Aug. 5.
