Skip to main content

Illinois student smiles, giggles after killing couple in DUI crash: video

Former Bradley University student laughs, smiles after driving drunk and killing a couple in Illinois, according to body camera footage obtained by Fox News Digital.

An Illinois woman who giggled and smiled after she killed two people in a 2022 drunk driving crash was sentenced to 14 years in prison last week.

In disturbing police body camera video obtained by Fox News Digital, Melgoza, 24, can be seen singing and smiling after the tragic collision. 

Melgoza, whose blood alcohol level registered at .264 — more than three times the legal limit — showed no concern when an officer told her that she had fatally struck Paul Prowant, 55, and his girlfriend, 43-year-old Andrea Rosewicz.

At the hospital, East Peoria Officer Jeffrey Bieber appeared to grow frustrated after Melgoza repeatedly told him she had to go to school the next day.

"You want me to be honest with you. You’re going to jail. You don’t have a bond. You killed two people tonight. I don’t think you understand that," Bieber snapped at Melgoza, who was sitting in a hospital bed, after the April 10, 2022, crash.

The former Bradley University student stared blankly and then asked whether she would make her night class later that week.

"Did you understand what I told you, that you killed two people tonight?" Bieber asked.

"Yes, I’m just wondering when I can go to school," she replied nonchalantly.

WATCH VIDEO OF WOMAN LAUGHING, GIGGLING MINUTES AFTER KILLING COUPLE IN DUI CRASH

"You’re on body camera being completely careless about killing two people tonight. You could care less. That’s sad and pathetic and horrible all at the same time," Bieber told her.

"Can you say that as a cop?" Melgoza asked. 

WOMAN IN SOUTH CAROLINA WHO ALLEGEDLY KILLED BRIDE, INJURED GROOM ON WEDDING NIGHT REEKED OF ALCOHOL: POLICE

Yes, ma’am, I can," he replied. 

As the officer waited with Melgoza for a nurse to perform a DUI kit, she danced and sang in the hospital room and talked excitedly about an upcoming trip to Las Vegas for her birthday.

"It’s going to be so fun," she gushed. "I’m going to start off with two Long Islands."

"You haven’t had enough of drinking already?" asked the officer.

"We’re talking about Vegas. There is no limit in Vegas, right?" she said, laughing. 

The student also told him that she couldn’t wait to join the "DUI Club" and asked for her phone, so she could text all her co-workers since, she said, they all have had DUIs, according to the police report.

Earlier that night, Melgoza called 911 after hitting the couple outside the bar Full Throttle at around 10 p.m. 

Officers who responded to the gruesome scene found her red Dodge Dart totaled with a severed leg "sticking out of the grill," a police report says.

OKLAHOMA POLICE CAPTAIN ARRESTED FOR DUI, REPEATEDLY BEGS OFFICER TO ‘TURN YOUR CAMERA OFF’

Melgoza watched without emotion as first responders vainly tried to resuscitate the victims.

She told officers that she had downed three vodka drinks and had been "just getting her night started" when she hit the victims outside Full Throttle.

There was an open handle of Tito’s vodka on the floor of her car, according to the police report.

"I graduate in four weeks — is this going to effect anything?" She asked an officer at the crime scene.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Melgoza pleaded guilty in February to two counts each of aggravated DUI and aggravated reckless driving. 

At her sentencing, she apologized. "I’m so sorry for everything, and I will never, ever commit anything like that again," she told the court, according to the Pekin Daily Times. "I have not drank since that day. I do not plan on drinking ever again."

Data & News supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Stock quotes supplied by Barchart
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the following
Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.