Wonder Lake man involved in 2010 fatal drunken boat crash pleads guilty to newer DUI charge

A Wonder Lake man convicted in 2010 for driving a boat while drunk and causing a fatal crash pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle drunk in 2022.

Ricky L. McGuire, 68, entered into a blind guilty plea Tuesday to aggravated driving under the influence, a Class 2 felony, according to a news release from the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office and court records.

A blind plea means that McGuire does not know what his sentence is as part of the deal. That will be determined at a hearing scheduled for May 22.

Sentencing for a Class 2 felony carries a prison term of three to seven years but also can result in probation. In exchange for his guilty plea, an additional charge of aggravated driving under the influence and a petty offense of improper traffic lane use were dismissed, court records show.

“On May 28, 2022, a deputy with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office discovered McGuire’s vehicle crashed into a fence at a home in Wonder Lake,” prosecutors said in the release. “The deputy turned on his lights and approached the vehicle to check on the driver. As the deputy walked up to the vehicle, the deputy observed the brake lights and the reverse lights turn on, and the vehicle begin to back up before it went forward and crashed into the fence again.

“The deputy observed the vehicle do this same thing four additional times before deputies were able to get the attention of McGuire, who was driving the vehicle. While speaking with McGuire, the deputy smelled an odor of alcohol and [observed] bloodshot, glassy eyes. McGuire was transported to the hospital and, although he was uninjured, testing revealed a blood-alcohol concentration of .3.”

That is more than three times the legal limit.

McGuire has a previous DUI from 1989 and was convicted in 2010 for causing a fatal crash while operating a watercraft under the influence of alcohol, prosecutors and court records show.

McGuire was convicted of being drunk when he drove a boat on Wonder Lake and crashed into another watercraft just after midnight July 6, 2008. The crash killed 21-year-old Nicole Jurgens of Wisconsin, according to the 2008 indictment filed in the McHenry County courthouse.

About 1½ hours after the fatal boat crash, tests showed that McGuire had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.179, according to court documents. The crash also injured Dave LeBrecht, the boat’s pilot and a family friend, according to testimony from McGuire’s 2010 jury trial.

LeBrecht, who was using a lantern for illumination to attract catfish, was thrown from the boat. He suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, according to testimony.

McGuire’s defense attorney said alcohol did not cause the crash; rather, it was due to LeBrecht’s boat not being properly lit. At the time of the boat crash, McGuire worked as a boat driver for the Wonder Lake ski team, according to earlier reports.

McGuire was sentenced to 10 years in prison in that case.

When McGuire was first charged in his latest DUI case, Jurgens mother, Suzanne Jurgens, said she was “disappointed.”

On Wednesday, after learning that McGuire pleaded guilty, she wrote in an email to the Northwest Herald: “When we found out that night that Nicole had died, her father John stormed out of the hospital and kept telling Nicole, ‘Go find Jesus.’”

The family’s desire now is for McGuire to “go find Jesus.”

Jurgens attended McHenry High School West and was described in an online obituary as someone who enjoyed animals, fishing and caring for young children, “especially the exceptional child.”