Man was drunk and high when he crashed car that killed his passenger, new charges say
A Woodlawn man has been charged with impaired driving after causing a crash that killed his passenger on Interstate 64 in O’Fallon in 2018.
Demetrius J. Hernandez, 26, was charged with five counts of aggravated driving under the influence in St. Clair County Court on Dec. 20. The charges stem from a car crash on Sept. 2, 2018, in which 25-year-old Quovadance R. Cornelius, of Mount Vernon, was killed.
According to the charging documents against him, Hernandez had alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine in his system when he got behind the wheel of his black 2015 Ford Fusion that Saturday night.
Skid marks at the scene indicated that the car had left the eastbound lanes of I-64 about a mile west of the Scott Air Force Base exit and drove into a state weigh station nearby, passing the scales and striking a light pole. According to state police at the time, the force of the collision split the car in half, leaving half on the pole and sending the other half approximately 10 to 15 feet away.
It wasn’t until 6:30 a.m. on Sunday that an off-duty Illinois State Police investigator headed to an officer-involved shooting in Centreville passed the car and stopped to help.
There, the investigator found a seriously injured Hernandez, who told him that he had been sitting there for hours watching cars pass and couldn’t summon help. Cornelius, the passenger, had been killed in the crash.
Hernandez was transported to a St. Louis hospital, where he was treated for his injuries.
It is unclear why the charges have come over a year after the accident. Illinois State Police could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Hernandez did not have a lawyer listed on St. Clair County’s court record system. He was not in police custody as of Thursday.
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