His passenger was ejected from the vehicle and found dead in the median on Interstate 80 near Ottawa. Police found empty beer bottles in the vehicle. The driver’s labs were positive for alcohol and cocaine.

It was too much for a judge to grant pre-trial release to Evans Salvador Quintana. He’ll stay in La Salle County Jail until he stands trial, now set for April 20.

Quintana, 31, of Joliet, appeared Wednesday in La Salle County Circuit Court for a detention hearing. He faces up to 14 years in prison, with no possibility of probation, for four counts of aggravated DUI resulting in a death, a Class 2 felony, for the May 5 crash that killed Ashley Russo of Naperville and injured five children.

Quintana and his lawyer, Joliet defense attorney Charles Bretz, asked Judge Michelle A. Vescogni to consider granting Quintana GPS monitoring.

Bretz acknowledged that Russo’s death was “quite a tragedy,” but argued Quintana didn’t pose a flight risk. Quintana, he said, was a longtime Illinois resident with a job and “strong community ties,” including a daughter who survived the May 5 crash.

While Quintana does not have a spotless record, he allowed that his convictions were all traffic offenses, not felonies.

Kelley Porter, assistant La Salle County state’s attorney, asked the judge for a detention order. Police who responded to the crash site found “multiple open bottles of beer and other alcoholic beverages” scattered in and near the vehicle. A blood panel later showed Quintana had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.1 and showed cocaine.

Porter said Quintana has multiple convictions for driving while revoked – all handed down for DUI convictions – and many missed court dates.

“The evidence is overwhelming this defendant is not going to comply with the terms and conditions of pre-trial release,” Porter said, adding later, “The biggest issue is the fact that the defendant has four offenses pending right now.”

The judge agreed Quintana posed a risk to the public and could not be counted on to abide by any conditions of release. Vescogni zeroed in on a charge of driving while revoked filed in November, six months after the crash that killed Russo.

“I can’t ignore that he’s continued to drive while he’s the subject of an investigation in the (May 5) matter before the court,” Vescogni said.

Quintana’s detention means he’s now entitled to a trial within 90 days. Vescogni set a final pre-trial conference for April 10, with trial to follow 10 days later unless Quintana and Bretz ask for more time to prepare for a jury.