No headlights, 66 MPH in 35 MPH zone, 2 dead: Joliet Police

Judge Fred Harvey ruled that Jacoby Hamilton met the SAFE-T Act’s dangerous standard. Hamilton’s accident killed a Joliet couple.

May 7, 2024, 1:31 p.m. (CDT). | Updated May 7, 2024, 2:06 p.m. (CDT).

JOLIET – Jacoby Hamilton, The 19-year-old Crest Hill driver was driving 66 mph in the middle of the night in a 35 mph Joliet speed limit zone without his headlights on, according to the Joliet police investigation into the April 18 traffic fatalities. February a Joliet couple emerges, Walter Kretzler, 65, and Roxane Holt59.

Due to Hamilton’s history of dangerous driving and his repeated behavior of skipping his unrelated traffic charges and criminal charges at the Will County Courthouse, the defendant will now remain in the Will County Jail indefinitely on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, Illinois SAFE-T -Act, ruled Will County Judge Fred Harvey.

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Hamilton met the SAFE-T Act’s danger standard and he met the willful escape standard, the judge found.

This week, Will County Prosecutor Katie Rabenda revealed the events surrounding Hamilton’s horrific overnight accident that ended the lives of the Joliet couple.

According to Rabenda’s successful petition to deny Hamilton’s provisional release:

• At 2:06 a.m., a Joliet police officer on routine night patrol discovered the accident, shortly after it occurred on Feb. 18 at Black Road and Infantry Drive.
• Hamilton was driving a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe and his Tahoe collided with a 2008 Trailblazer on the driver’s side door.
• The Trailblazer’s occupants, Kretzler and Holt, were trapped inside and died instantly.
• Meanwhile, Joliet Police Officer Jorge Trujillo saw Hamilton running out the driver’s door of his wrecked Chevrolet Tahoe, and his passenger also ran and escaped. Hamilton ran west across the Busey Bank parking lot, where the Joliet officer drove alongside him and ordered him to stop. Hamilton then changed direction and attempted to run southeast through the bank parking lot and head east on Black Road before Hamilton stopped and turned himself in at 733 Apollo Drive.
• Joliet police obtained video surveillance from Busey Bank, and the video showed the Joliet couple had a steady green light entering the intersection, while Hamilton’s Chevrolet Tahoe did not have its headlights on and Hamilton ignored the red light on Infantry Drive.
• After turning himself in to Joliet police, Hamilton told Joliet Fire Department paramedics, “My stomach hurts.” The paramedics asked if he had been involved in the accident. “It probably happened so quickly,” Hamilton told them.
• Autopsies revealed that Holt and Kretzler died as a result of multiple injuries they sustained in the wreck. Hamilton was wearing a seat belt and had a rash in his seat belt after the accident.
• On February 19, Lasonya Hamilton, the owner of the wrecked 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe, called Joliet police to retrieve personal items from her car. She told Joliet police that her son, Jacoby Hamilton, was driving the car during the accident.

The Joliet Police Department’s investigation into the double traffic fatality found:

• Hamilton had depressed his accelerator pedal 57 percent 2.5 seconds before the accident at a speed of 63 miles per hour.
• Half a second before the accident, Hamilton had the accelerator pedal depressed 100 percent and his speed during the collision was 66 miles per hour. The speed limit for northbound Infantry Drive is 35 miles per hour. The Joliet couple were driving 36 miles per hour half a second before their deaths. The posted speed limit was also 35 miles per hour.
• Hamilton’s Chevrolet Tahoe was traveling 31 mph over the speed limit at the time of the crash, noted Assistant State’s Attorney Katie Rabenda.
• Thanks to Joliet’s FLOCK camera system, Joliet police were able to get seven hits on Hamilton’s Chevrolet Tahoe the day before the double crash, and the FLOCK cameras showed the Tahoe’s headlights and taillights were working properly.
• Two weeks before the double fatality, Hamilton was cited by Joliet police at 1:46 a.m. for illegal transportation of alcohol by driver and possession of marijuana by driver. On Sept. 25, Joliet police arrested him on a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in which Hamilton had a gun in the same Chevrolet Tahoe. He also drew tickets for speeding, improper lane use and illegal possession of marijuana by driver as a result of the traffic stop on September 25, 2023.

According to Rabenda, Hamilton had court hearings on these cases on October 16, November 6 and again on March 6, and on all three occasions Hamilton failed to appear in court.

Related Joliet Patch Coverage:

Joliet’s horrific double fatality: Reckless murder charge filed