Before a packed courtroom in McHenry County Thursday, friends and family of 24-year-old man killed by a drunk driver spoke of the light and love he brought to their lives.

Nearly all present, as well as defendant Christine Eilers, 51, cried throughout the two-hour hearing, at which she was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Eilers, of McHenry, was accused of being drunk when she fatally struck Austin Stanek of Island Lake while he was walking with friends in 2024. She was also accused of fleeing the scene and trying to hide her car.

Under a negotiated plea deal, Eilers pleaded guilty to failure to report a crash causing a death, a Class 1 felony, and aggravated driving under the influence involving a crash causing death, Class 4 felony.

She was sentenced to seven years on each count, to be served consecutively. With credit for time served and truth-in-sentencing laws, the actual prison time will be about 9½ years, followed by two years of mandatory supervised release.

Assistant State’s Attorney William Bruce told Judge Tiffany Davis that had the case gone to trial, jurors would have heard that at 10:48 p.m. on Sept. 27, 2024, Stanek was walking with three friends along Roberts Road in Island Lake. As they approached Timber Trail, Eilers, driving a white Nissan Murano, struck Stanek and fled the area.

Bruce said the impact sent Stanek “several feet into the air.” He landed on grass and his friend attempted to give him CPR. He was taken to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital near Barrington, where he was pronounced dead.

A pathologist said Stanek suffered several skull fractures and died from blunt force injuries to his head due to being struck by a car, Bruce said.

Eilers drove her damaged vehicle, which had a cracked windshield, dents and was missing the passenger side mirror later found at the scene, to her boyfriend’s home in Lakemoor, authorities said. She hid her car, with a tarp over it, in his garage, Bruce said.

Police found the car Oct. 2. Through the use of the vehicle’s GPS, police traced Eilers’ whereabouts that night beginning at 4 p.m. when she drove to Bolt-On Inn in McHenry, the prosecutor recounted for the judge Thursday. Eilers stayed there from 4:30 to 7:15 p.m. and had consumed six alcoholic drinks, Bruce said. She left there at 7:30 p.m. and drove to the Broken Oar in Port Barrington. She stayed there until 10:30 p.m. and consumed two beers and three tequila shots, Bruce told the judge.

Soon after leaving, she hit Stanek “and kept going,” Bruce said.

An expert determined her blood-alcohol content level at the time she hit Stanek to be between .24 and .37 – “a severe state of intoxication,” Bruce said, citing the expert. The legal limit in Illinois is .008.

Eilers reported to her insurance company that she hit a construction barrel near Rockford, the prosecutor said.

Several friends and family members of Stanek – many wearing T-shirts saying “Be Like Austin”, the name of a scholarship fund his family has set up in his name. The T-shirt also was imprinted with the number 25, likely a nod to the fact that he would have turned 25 a week after his death. Each loved one tearfully read impact statements from the witness stand.

They spoke of how much they loved Stanek and of the love, light and compassion he brought into their lives. He was described as kind, witty, “the epitome of the nicest guy in the world,” Kim Kimbell, a family friend, said.

They spoke of his loss and the never-ending grief felt by those who knew Stanek. His aunt Roxana D’Ascanio described his death as “the most tragic and devastating thing to happen to our family. ... He was just starting to spread his wings.”

She described Stanek, a Wauconda High grad who was good at every sport he played, as the “youngest, brightest light in our family. ... Our hearts are permanently broken.”

His loved ones said that what Eilers did that night was reckless and selfish and that Stanek’s death was preventable had Eilers not made the “bad decisions” to drive drunk. His was “a life that mattered deeply,” his aunt Crissy Baden said.

Stanek’s mother, Carrie Stanek, wept as she read her statement with her husband, Paul Stanek, Austin’s father, standing beside her. She started by saying that although he was 24 years old, “he was my child, my baby.”

The day he died was the worst day of her life, and she suffers with anxiety; she can’t sleep through the night and can no longer work at her job, where she worked with children for 30 years.

She, like others who spoke, said she cannot go by the place where he was killed. She has anxiety when driving and is fearful when others she loves, including her husband and son Paul Stanek, drive anywhere.

Carrie Stanek spoke of how it’s hard to answer questions such as “How are you?” or “How many children do you have?” and to sign cards and not write Austin’s name or speak of him in the past tense. This, she said, “is heart-stopping.”

“I don’t like my new normal,” she said.

She said her son was “great at whatever he set his mind to” including baseball, volleyball and basketball. He loved his family and friends. He will never get to be an uncle to Paul’s children or “get the chance to love a family of his own.”

“To know Austin in any way was to love Austin,” Carrie Stanek said. She often wears Austin’s sweatshirt, which still smells like him, to feel his embrace.

“I have been diagnosed with broken heart syndrome,” she said. “I miss Austin every single day. Every day is heart-wrenching ... when I realize Austin is never coming home.”

Eilers also gave an emotional statement, weeping as she apologized and acknowledged what she did. She said she prays that she would give her life so Austin would come back.

“How do you start? How do you say I am deeply and gut-wrenchingly sorry?” she said.

She admitted she was drunk that night and that she should not have been driving. She also said it was not the first time she drove drunk. But she also stated she would never drink and drive again.

“I am the one that caused so much hurt. I am the one that caused so much pain. I am the one that caused so much suffering,” she said adding she has thought about Austin’s friends and family every day since that night.

“From the depths of my soul, I am so sorry,” she said. “I was sorry yesterday. I [will be] sorry tomorrow. I will be sorry the rest of my life.”