Charges Upgraded to Felonies in Deadly June Route 71 Crash

An Oswego man is now facing felony charges for his actions in a June car crash that killed a 22-year-old man, according to Kendall County court records.

Christopher Nevin, 25, of the 500 block of Heritage Drive, Oswego, had previously been facing traffic citations for the incident that killed Oswego resident Garrett Riotte on June 23.

Now those charges have been upgraded to: felony aggravated drunken driving leading to death, felony aggravated drunken driving leading to great bodily harm and felony leaving the scene of an accident, according to Kendall County court records.

On June 23, two cars struck Riotte at 2:21 a.m. north of the intersection of Route 71 and Forest Avenue, said Oswego Police. Riotte had been walking in a dark area of the roadway when he was struck by an eastbound car driven by Thomas Schilinger, 22, of the 200 block of Morgan Valley Drive, Oswego.

The impact tossed Riotte into the westbound lane and into the path of two oncoming cars, police said. One swerved and avoided striking Riotte, but the other, a car driven by Nevin, hit him, according to police.

Riotte was taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, where he later died, police said. Nevin originally was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a blood alcohol content higher than .08, and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. Schillinger was charged with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

Schillinger and Nevin both appeared in Kendall County court Nov. 20.

According to court records, Schillinger’s traffic case was continued to Dec. 18 and Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis said he does not expect any additional charges against Schillinger, according to a report in the Aurora Beacon News.

Nevin is still being held on $100,000 bail. He was charged again for driving under the influence on Nov. 11 in Aurora, according to DuPage County court records. He will appear in DuPage County court on Dec. 11. His next court appearance in Kendall County is Nov. 28.