JERSEYVILLE - Jersey County State’s Attorney Ben Goetten’s office has spent considerable time working on a fair plea agreement with the family of 65-year-old bicycle crash victim Carol R. Admire.
Admire lost her life in a tragic incident on the Great River Road last spring. Monday, a plea arrangement was finally approved in court.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
East Alton’s Kajavion M. McCarvey entered a guilty plea of Aggravated DUI and that carried a higher sentencing than the other charge of Reckless Homicide, which was dismissed, Goetten said.
The sentence for the Aggravated DUI charge is probation to 14 years in prison, while the Reckless Homicide charge is punishable by 2-5 years in prison.
Investigators of the accident said McCarvey of East Alton was driving a 1990 Chevy pickup truck that ran off the roadway and struck 65-year-old Admire. The Jersey County Sheriff’s Department report said both Admire and McCarvey were traveling south toward Alton when the incident occurred just before 4 p.m. on May 23 between Stanka Lane and Piasa Harbor. The location was just inside the Jersey County line.
McCarvey was sentenced to eight months and his time in the Jersey County Jail applied to his sentence. He will also receive two years of court probation and be required to complete 1,250 hours of community service work. He will pay a $500 fine, in addition to court costs. He will also have his driver’s license revoked for the Aggravated DUI, Jersey County State’s Attorney Ben Goetten said.
“Carol Admire’s two daughters read victim impact statements and in those, they said they lost a wonderful person in their life, who is someone they miss and think about every day,” Goetten said. “They said around the holidays it is very difficult. They did encourage him (McCarvey) to move his life forward in positive fashion and affect the world in a positive ways and both included statements such as that. Any time a life is lost you are never happy but hopefully this brings satisfaction and closure to them. That is what we try to do in these types of situations.”
Speaking about the People vs. McCarvey case, Goetten said:
“This case has been a top priority in my office since its filing back in early August of this year. In working closely with the family of the victim, Carol Admire, we purposefully continued the case to allow for the defendant to spend a significant amount of time in jail. And while no amount of punishment will ever be adequate, we came to what we feel is a just disposition and punishment.
"Carol Admire was clearly an amazing person, evidenced by the number of people she touched and the outpouring of sympathy and support extended to her family after this tragic accident. I've had the absolute pleasure of getting to know Mrs. Admire's two daughters and without personally knowing Mrs. Admire, I would have to say she would be very proud of the way her two daughters have handled this difficult time.
"They have both shown a great deal of patience and understanding throughout the process. It's commendable that while the family of the victim do want this defendant to be punished for what he did, they also have expressed their desire that this young man still move forward with his life in a positive way. It would have been easy to be filled with hatred toward Kajavion McCarvey but that's a side I did not see from this family.
"As always the hope of my office is that this process will bring some degree of closure to a family that has dealt with a great tragedy.”
More like this:
