Drunken Driver Went on Key West Vacation While Victim Died

By Joseph Hosey

While James Farmer was losing the fight for his life in a Joliet hospital, the woman who ran him over was on a Key West vacation with her boyfriend and posting photographs of herself in front of a bar and alongside a gigantic pirate statue.

Farmer's family told of the shocking photos they found on 32-year-old Kara Quiett's Facebook page during a sentencing hearing in Will County court Tuesday.

Quiett pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated driving under the influence in April. She faces up to 14 years in prison but prosecutors recommended sending her away for no more than 10.

Quiett ran over Farmer while the 49-year-old man was riding his bicycle home from work in June 2012. Farmer had left his car at home so his wife could take their young twins to a doctor's appointment.

Farmer was bicycling on Midland Avenue in Rockdale when Quiett ran him over. Joliet police Sgt. Phillip Stice said Quiett refused to submit to a blood draw to test her level of intoxication and told officers she would fight them if they tried to take her blood.

Stice said he secured a search warrant and he and three other officers held her down while a phlebotomist at Presence St. Joseph Medical Center took a blood sample. The draw was not done until nearly five hours after the collision but still showed Quiett's blood alcohol content was above the 0.08 legal limit at 0.148.

Farmer remained in a coma at St. Joseph's for 12 days before his wife, Amanda Farmer, decided to take him off life support. Amanda Farmer said her husband immediately stopped breathing and died.

While Farmer was in the hospital, Quiett, who was free on bond, went on her vacation. Farmer's family said she posted photos of herself on Facebook holding a margarita, but the pictures introduced as evidence did not show her with a drink. Assistant State's Attorney Chris Regis said the photographs were of Quiett standing outside a Key West bar and next to a "gigantic pirate." Another showed her standing on Oak Street Beach in Chicago.

Judge Daniel Rozak wanted to know more about the pictures and how they ended up on Facebook. Quiett confirmed that she posted them and tried to shed some light on her reasons for taking the trip.

"I don't know how to explain," she said.

"My boyfriend at the time had this trip planned months in advance," Quiett said. "He said, 'This might be your last chance to do something. You're going away.'

"I didn't do it to hurt anyone," she said. "At the time it was, get away or kill myself. That's kind of how I felt."

Quiett, who had also pleaded guilty to a 2006 drunken driving charge, was on her way to Jewel to buy something to eat when she hit Farmer. Quiett was sentenced to court supervision for her prior driving under the influence conviction.

Judge Rozak said he will announce Quiett's sentence later this month.

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