Crime & Safety

Ex-cop Gets 6 Years for DUI Crash That Killed Homewood Student

A 20-year-old Homewood man was killed in a fiery crash near New Lenox when his car was struck in 2010 by a pickup truck driven by Robert C. Caputo.

—By Patch Editor Ann Piasecki

An ex-Orland Hills cop was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for an aggravated DUI conviction, stemming from the death of a 20-year-old Homewood man in September 2010 on Interstate 80 near New Lenox.

Will County Judge Edward Burmila sentenced Robert E. Caputo, 62, 8811 W. 167th Place, Orland Hills, to prison for a Class 2 felony that he pleaded guilty to on May 17. The penalty for the aggravated DUI conviction could have been as much as 14 years and as little as three years, according to a statement by Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow.

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Caputo's decision to drive with a blood alcohol level of .11 was described by Glasgow as a "callous decision to drink and then drive claimed the life of a young man. He can now spend the next six years in state prison contemplating the horrific outcome of his selfish action.”

The victim in the accident was DaVon Pitts, who was attending Prairie State College in Chicago Heights at the time of the accident. He was a 2009 graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School.  

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Caputo was driving his pickup truck while intoxicated on eastbound Interstate 80 near New Lenox on Sept. 12, 2010 when he struck Pitts' Chevrolet Malibu. Because it had a flat tire, Pitts' had parked on the left shoulder of the road. The impact forced the car into a ditch where it caught fire. Pitts was on his cell phone, sitting in the vehicle at the time.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

After the collision, Caputo’s truck went airborne and crossed the median into westbound traffic and hit another vehicle. The 40-year-old driver of that vehicle as well as a 32-year-old female passenger and a 10-year-old boy escaped serious injury, the press release noted.  


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