Inset (top): Mason Hada (Facebook). Inset (bottom): Deahri Steele (Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office). Background: News footage of the crash that killed Mason Hada (WTVO).
An Illinois man who went on the run after he killed a teenager in a drunk driving crash will spend the next several years in prison.
Deahri Steele, 23, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and aggravated DUI five years after he killed 16-year-old Mason Hada in a car crash. According to local CW affiliate WRNF, Steele was behind the wheel of a black sedan on Aug. 26, 2021, when he hit speeds as high as 96 mph. Police said Steele was also under the influence.
Local ABC affiliate WTVO reported that Mason was on his way home from football practice and on the phone with his father seconds before his car was struck by Steele’s.
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After the crash, Steele was taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries. Mason was pronounced dead at the scene.
In an interview with WTVO, Mason’s father, LeRoy Hada, said through tears that he was talking to his son, who was using the speakerphone, “and then all of a sudden it just stopped. And then, boom, I heard it. I heard the glass break, and I heard the squealing. I kept calling him. He didn’t answer.”
When Hada got to the scene, he said “everything [was] complete chaos. The ambulance had to cut my boy out of the car.”
While police searched for Steele, he fled the state. He was eventually apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service in Detroit, Michigan, on Dec. 9, 2022. After his arrest, he was extradited to Illinois’ Winnebago County and booked into jail.
On Thursday, Steele was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the reckless homicide charge and five years and six months for the aggravated DUI resulting in death charge, to be served concurrently. He received credit for the four years he spent in the Winnebago County Jail.
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