Spring Grove woman gets probation in crash where man died, she fled

A Spring Grove woman who admitted to leaving the scene of a crash where she killed a man was sentenced Thursday to two years probation. The man’s brother said the sentence “is an insult.”

Brittany Marble, 29, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a personal injury crash, a Class 4 felony.

As part of her probation, she is ordered to complete 300 hours of public service and abstain from controlled substances without a prescription or marijuana without a medical marijuana card. She must obtain a substance use evaluation and follow all recommendations. She will be tested for substances twice a month. She must attend a victim impact panel and file proof of completion within 90 days, Judge Mark Gerhardt said.

Authorities said Marble fled the scene after fatally striking Edgar Rogelio Torres-Flores, 39, of North Chicago, early on May 29, 2023. She was arrested weeks later after police reviewed videos from security cameras and connected debris and car parts found at the scene to her damaged vehicle, according to a McHenry County Sheriff’s Office police report.

During the traffic stop where she was arrested, she was asked about the damage to her vehicle and Marble claimed she had hit a deer in Antioch, deputies said in the report.

Julio Cesar Torres-Flores, Edgar’s older brother and one of his four siblings, was in the courtroom Thursday with Edgar’s widow and 11-year-old son. Julio Cesar Torres-Flores said Marble’s sentence is “a slap on the hand.”

“The sentence [for] this woman is an insult,” he said after the hearing. “For killing my brother, it is nothing. It is like a slap on the hand. She killed someone, my brother, and she gets away with nothing. [She is] free. I cannot accept it.”

Marbles made no statement during the hearing. Her attorney declined comment afterward.

Julio Cesar Torres-Flores said his younger brother had worked and attended a quinceañera that day in Round Lake. His brother called him about 12:30 a.m., Julio Cesar Torres-Flores said, and his brother was tired and had been drinking alcohol. He said he became angry with his brother and told him to come straight to his house. When he didn’t arrive, he was concerned and began calling his phone. There was no answer. He then called his brother’s friends and went looking for him.

The next morning he learned his brother had been killed and police were looking for whoever killed him, Julio Cesar Torres-Flores said. From tracking his brother’s whereabouts that night on a Google app, he said his brother wound up at the site where his car was found at 1:04 a.m. Police were called by a passerby and arrived about an hour later, according to a police report.

Edgar Rogelio Torres-Flores crashed his vehicle into a ditch, his brother said. He was outside his vehicle when Marble was traveling south on Wilmot Road. She is accused of striking him near the intersection of Wilmot Road and Sun Dial Lane in Fox Lake, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office and police reports.

His body was found about 20 feet north of his Volkswagen Touareg, on the road, face up, unconscious and not breathing. He was pronounced dead on site, police said. His vehicle was locked with the key in the ignition and still running, a police report said.

“She left him there to die,” Julio Cesar Torres-Flores said. “Even if you hit a little raccoon, you feel something. Now think about someone who weighs 170 pounds. It’s a big hit,” he said.

Julio Cesar Torres-Flores created a memorial at the site of his brother’s death. He has applied to the McHenry County Division of Transportation Adopt-A-Highway program. He wants a plaque with his brother’s name and a loving message to be put at the site.

He said he goes there daily, sometimes at night after work, and talks to his brother. He has created videos of the roadway at night, marking the locations showing where Marble would have been driving and distances between where his brother was hit and his vehicle and body located.

Julio Cesar Torres-Flores said he never thought he would lose his younger brother and especially not like this. He said his brother was a hard worker, always smiling, happy and spent a lot of his time with his son. “He was a good man, a really good man.”