Frankfort Man Wanted in Fatal '10 Accident Has Troubled Driving Past

A Frankfort man wanted on reckless homicide charges connected to a 2010 accident has more than a dozen speeding and traffic convictions in Will County, according to court records.

Stanislaw W. Wdowikowski, 27, was charged Tuesday with five counts of aggravated reckless driving causing bodily harm for an accident on Oct. 28, 2010, that killed one person and injured another, according to a Sun-Times Media report.

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Wdowikowski, along with his girlfriend, Danielle Yakima, and her brother, Michael, was speeding as fast as 97 mph north on Gougar Road from Hoff Road in Manhattan Township when he lost control of his car and crashed into a cornfield, the report stated.

The vehicle was torn apart, and all three were ejected from the car, the report said. Michael Yakima died soon after the crash, according to the report.

A week before that accident, Wdowikowski caused an accident around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 21, 2010, in the southbound lane of the 1900 block of LaGrange Road and later received supervision after being charged with failing to reduce speed, court records show. He also was fined $350.

Wdowikowski has 15 convictions for traffic offenses—including speeding, driving without insurance, disregarding stop signs and others—since 2001, according to Will County Circuit Court records. He has been convicted five times of speeding at least 15 mph over the limit since 2008, including a March 2008 conviction for speeding 31-plus mph over the limit. In each of those cases, Wdowikowski was given supervision and fined.

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Wdowikowski is the kind of driver a proposed state measure called Julie's Law would target. Named after Julie Gorczynski, a student , the law would not allow court supervision .

As of Thursday afternoon, Wdowikowski was not in custody, said Will County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer. The sheriff's office has, on average, about 10,000 active warrants a day, and when it comes to prioritizing them, officials take into account the type of crime committed, the threat the suspects pose, as well as whether they will flee, Hoffmeyer said. Wdowikowski isn't considered a danger to himself or the public, she added.