Round Lake Man Charged In Crash That Killed Grayslake Dad-To-Be

GRAYSLAKE, IL – The driver of a car that struck and killed a Grayslake father-to-be last year faces charges of driving under the influence of drugs and without insurance more than six months after the fatal Father's Day weekend crash, police said Wednesday.

Joe Paredes, 31, of unincorporated Round Lake, has been charged in the incident after investigators from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office determined he was under the influence of marijuana when he struck and killed Matthew Evers, 34, of Grayslake, just before midnight on June 19, 2021.

At the time, police said Paredes was suspected of driving under the influence of intoxicating substances when the crash took place on Route 120 in Wauconda. Police said Evers was walking on the side of the road before he wandered into the road and was hit by a Chevrolet Impala.

Evers had been riding in a ride-share vehicle minutes before he was hit, but police said he decided to get out of the vehicle and begin walking.

Evers was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but later died on Father’s Day at a Park Ridge Hospital. Evers and his wife were expecting their first child in November. A GoFundMe effort to help the Evers family raised more than $72,000.

Police said Wednesday that Evers’ blood alcohol content level was three times the legal limit when he was hit, according to toxicology reports. A department spokesman said that the information about his condition was being released for the first time and that it was one of the contributing factors in the crash, according to investigators.

Police are not able to determine how much his blood alcohol content level contributed to the crash, given Paredes' condition.

“We may never know what caused (Evers) to leave the vehicle he was riding in, and abruptly exiting to the roadway,” Lake County Deputy Sheriff Chris Covelli wrote in an email to Patch on Wednesday.

Paredes is due back in court on Feb. 23 and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.