Avila sentenced to 9 years for fatal 2017 hit & run of Tricia Hoyt

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow has announced that Circuit Court Judge Dave Carlson sentenced Eduardo Avila, 21, to nine years in prison for the 2017 fatal hit and run of then-35-year-old Tricia Hoyt in Bolingbrook.

Avila pled guilty on October 25, 2019 to one count of failure to report an accident involving serious injury or death.

The Frankfort woman was struck by the 2002 Honda Accord that Avila of Cicero was driving on November 4, 2017, after she had left a party in Bolingbrook.

Her body was found shortly after noon the following day in a grassy area off Frontage Road in Bolingbrook.

Avila had been charged with failure to stop after having an accident involving personal injury or death and failure to report an accident involving personal injury or death. He turned himself into authorities approximately a week after the accident had occurred.

“Sadly, no one will ever know whether Tricia Hoyt could have survived had authorities been contacted when the accident first occurred and had she not been left lying overnight in an isolated grassy area,” Glasgow said. “Our aggressive prosecution of this matter and today’s sentence sends the clear message that leaving the scene of a hit and run will bring severe consequences. This matter is heartbreaking for everyone involved. This young man in a single moment changed his life and the life of so many others by thinking only about himself rather than thinking about trying to saving the victim he hit with his car.”

Glasgow praised Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Slazyk and Victim Advocate Nichole Pasteris for their hard work and dedication.