‘Loss cannot be measured’: Lakemoor man pleads guilty in fatal DUI crash as family of victim, 21, shares grief

The victim of a fatal DUI crash was “an extraordinary person,” a family member said in court Thursday during the sentencing of the Lakemoor man who pleaded guilty in the death.

Max P. McNamara, 33, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of aggravated driving under the influence causing death and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

An additional count of aggravated DUI was dismissed. He is required to serve 85% of his prison time which will be followed by one year of mandatory supervised release, prosecutors and Judge Mark Gerhardt said in accepting McNamara’s guilty plea.

He will receive credit for 442 days spent in the McHenry County jail since his arrest plus 199 days, half day for each day spent working in the jail, McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Miller said.

At about 2 a.m. Oct. 1, 2023, prosecutors said McNamara’s alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit of .08 as he traveled eastbound on Route 173 and crashed head-on into Dejan Kuljanin’s vehicle. Miller said during an earlier hearing that tests also showed McNamara had cocaine and amphetamine in his system.

Kuljanin was driving westbound near Harvard, heading home to Rockford after attending a family wedding. He had no alcohol or drugs in his system, the autopsy showed. Family members said that though he was 21 years old and enjoying the family wedding he made a conscious decision not to drink.

McNamara, initially charged with misdemeanor DUI, first struck another vehicle that two of Kuljanin’s family members were in, authorities determined. That vehicle left the road and McNamara then collided with Kuljanin’s vehicle, police said. Kuljanin was pronounced dead at the scene. His two family members in the other vehicle were treated for minor injuries and released at the scene, police said.

“Dejan Kuljanin was taken from us in a tragic and senseless accident,” his cousin Nina Kuljanin Thompson said at Thursday’s hearing. She read from a prepared victim impact statement in the McHenry County courtroom as family members, including Kuljanin’s parents looked on. “The loss we have experienced cannot be measured in words. ... Since that tragic day our family has been drowning in grief.... Dejan was an extraordinary person.”

Thompson described him as honest and empathetic, a mentor and role model. The family is reminded Kuljanin is “gone forever” with every holiday, birthday or special occasion. He was “someone who filled our lives with joy, love and laughter. The emptiness left in our hearts is immeasurable and no one can ever replace the void that Dejan has left behind.”

When he died, Kuljanin was in his fourth year at Rockford University, studying elementary education on a full-ride scholarship. The school has created a memorial garden in his honor and granted him a posthumous degree.

He also had plans to become a nurse, his cousin Kristina Culic said after the hearing.

Culic said he worked at a nursing home and often stayed late, after his shift ended, to care for residents who were struggling in some way. He also cared for an ailing grandmother who had ALS. “He knew he wanted to be a nurse.”