A Thayer man could head back to prison for his sons’ 2018 Kankakee River drowning deaths after he violated his probation with a brief police chase in May 2024.
Eric Patillo, now 41, appeared in Lake Superior Court Thursday.
He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2021 after admitting he was on heroin when he picked up his two sons, Levi, 4, and Evan, 2, to fish at the Kankakee River on Aug. 21, 2018, after dropping their mother off at work.
Patillo was seen nodding off at the riverbank with the boys.
After their deaths, relatives told the Post-Tribune they suspected Levi was trying to protect his little brother, who loved water.
Judge Samuel Cappas gave Patillo the option to petition to modify his 16-year prison sentence after finishing a nine-month drug rehab program. He took it, successfully leaving prison in 2022 for probation.
However, in May 2024, he was charged in Jasper County with fleeing during a traffic stop. He signed a plea deal and has since served the latter sentence.
At Thursday’s hearing, defense lawyer Amishi Sanghvi told Magistrate Kathleen Sullivan that she wanted to cut down the possible time Patillo would spend back in prison for the boys’ deaths.
The chase was “not a violent offense,” Sanghvi said.
Lake County Community Corrections work release told her that they were open to evaluating Patillo to see if he could spend the last two years of his revived sentence on work release.
Sanghvi also said she would petition to make the sentence for the boys’ deaths concurrent, rather than consecutive, in a bid to cut his prison sentence from 16 to 8 years.
Sullivan told her she would not do it, and the lawyer would have to petition Cappas, who originally sentenced him.
Deputy Prosecutor Gary Marek told Sullivan that he did not want to cut Patillo’s sentence but would give Sanghvi time to research if converting the back two years to work release was possible.
A status hearing is set for March 5. A hearing before Cappas is not yet scheduled.
Sullivan extended her condolences for the boys’ deaths.
“It’s something I live with every day,” Patillo told her.
According to court records, a Jasper County Deputy got a FLOCK license plate reader alert just after 5 p.m. May 6, 2024, that there were warrants attached to the registered owner of a 1989 Ford Mustang – not Patillo, but a different man.
However, Patillo, the driver, took off near Ind. 110 and Ind. 10 at an unspecified “high rate of speed,” according to court records. He tried to pull over before driving off just under 30 mph. Down the road, he pulled over again and was arrested.
mcolias@post-trib.com
