Articles
Alcohol tied to fatal SUV accident
October 15, 2004
A convicted burglar was drunk when he lost control of a stolen SUV and killed
a 6-year-old boy earlier this week, authorities said Thursday.
Michael Schmidt, 23, of the 5300 block of North Leavitt, was drinking vodka
with his gang pals before the crash, said a source close to the investigation.
His blood-alcohol level was .18 percent -- more than twice the legal limit,
the source said.
Schmidt appeared Thursday in Cook County Criminal Court in baggy blue jeans
and a Chicago Bulls jersey. Judge Raymond Myles ordered him held without bail
on charges of felony murder, burglary and reckless homicide.
Schmidt, a Latin Kings member, yelled gang slogans
at plainclothes police Tuesday night, prosecutors said. He allegedly sped
away in a stolen Lexus as police ordered him to stop the vehicle -- striking
an officer with a rearview mirror.
The sport-utility vehicle ran a stop sign and jumped the curb at Greenview
and Sunnyside, killing Alexander Diaz and injuring his brother Margarito,
7, and sister Leticia, 13, about a block from their home in the Ravenswood
neighborhood. They were walking home with their mother from a grocery.
The two other men in the SUV were not charged.
Schmidt is accused of stealing the SUV from a garage in the 4800 block of
Paulina last Friday.
He once worked as parking attendant at Wrigley Field and as a construction
worker, court records show.
When he was 16, Schmidt was found guilty of robbery.
The next year, he was arrested for disorderly conduct when he and other Latin
Kings were blocking the entrance to a 7-Eleven on the North Side, police
said. He was later busted for trespassing in a vacant building where a Latin
Kings party was being held, records show.
In 2002, he was sentenced to prison boot camp after he was convicted of a
string of vehicle burglaries.