Man charged in fatal Wheaton crash near county headquarters

Pretrial release was denied Friday for a DuPage County man charged with reckless homicide in connection with a fatal crash this week in Wheaton near the county government complex.

Ryan D. Devine, 43, is accused of speeding and driving through a red light southbound and hitting a vehicle that was turning left. The crash killed Marcile Wagner, age 85, of Winfield.

DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden Friday ordered Devine be detained pretrial.

Devine also is charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in personal injury or death, obstructing justice ‒ giving false identification, and misdemeanor and petty offenses including speeding more than 35 mph over the limit.

The crash happened at 1:16 p.m. Wednesday at County Farm Road and the DuPage County government complex entrance north of Manchester Road.

Devine was driving a Jeep Wrangler; Wagner was a passenger in a Honda CRV.

The Honda was northbound on County Farm, making a left turn on a green arrow, when it was hit on the passenger side by the Wrangler. A press release from the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office said Devine was driving 82 mph in a 35 mph zone, 5 seconds before the crash.

According to a petition for detention, Devine left the scene, was found a little while later on Manchester west of County Farm, and tried to leave again after being told by police he could not leave.

In his written ruling, Dieden noted that Devine was on pretrial release for two unrelated criminal cases in DuPage County, and had received sanctions for failure to appear at a court date for one of them. Dieden concluded Devine was not likely to comply with any less-restrictive conditions he could have imposed. He also noted that in the reckless homicide case, as Devine was being taken out of the courtroom by deputies, Devine made an obscene comment about Dieden’s ruling.