A Calumet City man who skipped court Friday was sentenced to 39 years for the Jan. 7, 2022 crash during a high-speed police chase on Interstate 80/94 that killed his pregnant girlfriend and their two-year-old son.
Eric K. White, now 23, pleaded guilty June 23 in Lake Superior Court in Crown Point, Ind. to Level 1 felony neglect of a dependent resulting in death and Level 3 felony resisting law enforcement. Two other charges — another Level 3 felony resisting law enforcement count, and a misdemeanor carrying a handgun without a license charge — were dropped in the plea. He faced up to 39 years.
A warrant was issued for his arrest.
In the crash, his girlfriend, Britni A. Griffin, 20, of Matteson, Illinois, was ejected from the car. A passerby told police her body was lying 100 yards east. Their child was identified as Ky’Air Lucas.
On the stand Friday, White’s mother Latanya Boswell told his defense lawyer Tim Bianco that the couple met in 2018 while they were in high school and planned to get married. Griffin was a “sweet girl,” she said.
White was “very afraid” of the criminal case and had problems sleeping since the crash, she said.
Erin Clarich, a “mitigation expert” from Sentencing Solutions, LLC — a witness for Bianco — testified before Boswell that she dug into White’s life to bring up factors that might lessen a prison sentence. Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson questioned several parts of her report, saying its credibility was essentially based on whether or not White was lying to her.
Initial reports from the charging affidavit described a gruesome and devastating crash scene as if out of a horror movie.
When Deputy Prosecutor Jacquelyn Altpeter gave Judge Salvador Vasquez pictures from the crash, he told her he understood what happened and didn’t need to see the most explicit ones.
Court documents show the chase started around 11:30 a.m. after a Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy tried to pull White over for a traffic stop in Gary. White had an active arrest warrant for illegal possession of a handgun, officials later said. Once he jumped on the highway, speeds topped well over 100 mph.
A spokeswoman for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to questions Friday including what circumstances deputies are ordered to disengage from a high-speed chase to help avoid a deadly crash.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Det. Shane Ratkovich testified Friday he saw White’s black Audi near 25th Avenue and Broadway in Gary. Court documents state White was speeding, then made an abrupt U-turn on East 25th Avenue running a red light, documents state. The officer lost track of him. Another officer said White had “numerous other (traffic) infractions” that day, he said in court.
A second deputy picked up the chase, headed north on Broadway, before White turned around and headed for I-80/94 westbound, charges state. The Audi wove around a car on the on-ramp, picking up speed, the affidavit states. It continued to weave “recklessly” in-and-out of traffic. By the next exit, Grant Street, White was still gaining “considerable distance,” driving 100 mph, according to the deputy, charges state.
A third officer, a detective from the Lake County Police High Crimes Unit, joined the chase at Grant Street. The second deputy lost sight of White for 20 to 30 seconds until he saw a large amount of smoke near Colfax Street, documents state.
One officer estimated White was driving 130 mph just before the crash.
The car hit the back of a large, industrial 2018 Kenworth semi-tractor-trailer, spun around and hit a median wall before going back across all lanes and was T-boned by the same semi truck, the affidavit alleges.
When Ratkovich and another officer caught up, they were focused on White. He didn’t realize there were others in the car, because the Audi’s windows were “tinted,” he said in court.
The Audi “looked like a convertible,” he said. The roof was “completely gone” and the car was “mangled.” White was clinging to the steering wheel, cursing them and trying to physically fight officers from taking him out of the car. He had a large cut on his face and a loaded semi-automatic gun in his pocket.
They pulled White out of the burning car, charges show.
Another woman, a bystander, had to pull up and tell Ratkovich that Griffin got ejected and her body was on the road, he said. Then, he saw what happened to her.
It was the “most traumatic” sight of his career, adding he was “in shock”.
The car must have hit a t-bar on a semi, Ratkovich said. The child was later found “mangled” and “unresponsive” in the back car seat, court records show.
The deputy felt White showed “no remorse,” because he didn’t ask if Griffin and the child were OK. Ratkovich said he and the other officer were left “extremely emotional” by what happened.
White was previously arrested in November 2021 for allegedly fleeing from police, Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez said in a prior release.
Before sentencing, Bianco told Vasquez White “did admit his guilt” by signing the plea last year. He had no criminal history, not even a traffic ticket. He asked for a minimum sentence.
Altpeter called the crash “absolutely horrific” and “gruesome,” noting Griffin was eight weeks pregnant. White was responsible for what happened, she said.
“No one should die the way they died,” Altpeter said.
White was driving so fast — topping 120 mph — that any slight jerk of the steering wheel could have spelled disaster. And, it did, she said.
She asked for the maximum 39 years.
The crash was “horrible for everyone involved”, including cops and paramedics who had to see it, Vasquez said. He sentenced White to 39 years.
It was “so preventable”, and White was deeply irresponsible, he added.
