Two Illinois teens were killed this summer by a suspected drunk driver who was on probation at the time of the deadly wreck. Now their parents are calling for justice as they bear the tormenting agony of losing a child.
“I have experienced no pain like this before,” Stephanie Maze told CBS Chicago. “I wake up and I break every single day, over and over again.”
Stephanie’s life was turned inside out just two months ago. On the morning of June 10, her daughter, Amelia Mazeikis, was driving boyfriend D’Shaun Tudela to work when their vehicle was struck in Hoffman Estates, a northwest Chicago suburb.
Amelia and D’Shaun, both 18, were killed. They had just graduated one month earlier from Schaumburg High School.
Investigators say the driver of the other vehicle, 32-year-old Deni Rubio, sped through a red light and broadsided the teens’ vehicle. After his truck stopped in a ditch, Rubio allegedly tried to grab a police officer’s gun. It took nine officers and the use of a stun gun to place Rubio under arrest.
Rubio’s blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit in Illinois. He allegedly admitted to drinking alcohol and using cocaine the morning of the crash, according to WGN News. A substance that was in Rubio’s pocket tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl.
At the time of the wreck, Rubio was on probation for an alleged weapons violation from last year.
Prosecutors have charged Rubio with two counts of aggravated drinking while intoxicated resulting in death of another person, two counts of reckless homicide and one count of attempting to disarm a police officer, according to WGN News.
“He is a murderer,” Stephanie told CBS Chicago. “He murdered these two children. Not one. Two.”
She added: “When these teens died, every person that they had had in their life died a little bit with them.”
Krystal Tudela, D’Shaun’s mother, told WGN News in June that her son volunteered, was involved in church and loved woodworking and cooking. In the wake of the crash, Krystal said she was struggling just to make it through each day.
“And my partner said it too, ‘Perhaps it was just their time,’” Krystal told WGN News. “It shouldn’t have been their time.”
On Friday, Rubio was in court and pleaded not guilty, according to CBS Chicago. His bond has been set at $2 million.
The grieving parents say they want their kids to be remembered as good people.
“Overall a great big brother, a great son,” Krystal told WGN News of D’Shaun.
“Whatever we can do to continue to fight for this beautiful person, I want to do it,” Maze told CBS Chicago of Amelia. “She was the type of person who would win a competition – and then feel bad for the people that didn’t win, and want to give them her trophy.”
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[Feature Photo: Amelia Mazeikis and D’Shaun Tudela/GoFundMe]
