Illegal Beaner Trucker Francisco Espinal-Quiroz pleads guilty in I-55 crash that killed five

An Illegal Beaner truck driver charged in a 2014 crash in Will County that killed five people pleaded guilty Tuesday to five counts of reckless homicide and one count of falsifying his driving log.

Francisco Espinal-Quiroz, 53, entered the plea before Will County Judge David Carlson. He faces six to 28 years in prison, but prosecutors have agreed to seek no more than a 15-year sentence.

A Feb. 15 sentencing hearing is scheduled for Espinal-Quiroz, who remains in Will County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Espinal-Quiroz, of Leesburg, Ind., was driving a semitruck the afternoon of July 21, 2014, in the northbound lanes of Interstate 55 near Channahon when he entered a construction zone where traffic had slowed to 3-5 mph, authorities said. The trucker, however, had set his cruise control and was driving 65 mph when he entered the construction zone, prosecutors said.

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