The Chicago Tribune is reporting that on Friday, a Chicago judge found Jeanette Sliwinski guilty of reckless homicide in a July 2005 car wreck that killed Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist and Chicago musicians John Glick and Douglas Meis. The prosecution had sought three counts of first-degree murder, based on Sliwinski's post-wreck statement to the police that she had been attempting suicide.
The 25-year-old former trade-show model had been attempting suicide when she rear-ended the car carrying Dahlquist, Glick, and Meis going nearly 90 miles per hour down a street in suburban Chicago. The three men were in a Honda Civic at a red light when Sliwinski slammed into them with her Mustang. They were on their lunch break from Shure, a suburban Chicago company that specializes in microphones and electronics. Sliwinski survived with only a foot injury.
The defense had pinned its hopes on a "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense, saying that Sliwinski suffered from paranoid delusions. But the judge wasn't buying it, noting that Sliwinski's story had changed too many times and been refuted by expert testimony.
Nevertheless, the judge found her sufficiently ill to reduce the guilty verdict from first-degree murder to the lesser reckless homicide. Sliwinski could face up to 10 years in prison (with court-ordered psychological treatment) when she's sentenced Nov. 26. If she'd been convicted of murder, she would have faced life in prison.