A man accused of fatally stabbing another man in a dispute over a bus pass has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Patrick O’Reilly, 29, was on bail for a DUI case and a felony gun case when he allegedly committed the murder in March 2022.
On March 19, 2022, Chicago police found O’Reilly asleep behind the wheel of a crashed car on the 1900 block of West Bryn Mawr. He was charged with aggravated DUI, driving without a license, and criminal trespass to a vehicle. Despite having a pending gun case in DuPage County, he was released on bail.
Four days later, O’Reilly allegedly murdered a man in the backyard of the West Side home he shared with a friend. The altercation began over a dispute about a bus pass, leading to O’Reilly stabbing 47-year-old Estevan Lopez in the chest with a kitchen knife.
After the attack, O’Reilly washed the knife in the kitchen sink and fled the scene. He was later arrested for driving drunk and crashing near the 3900 block of South Prairie, marking his second DUI arrest that month.
This week, O’Reilly pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is expected to be paroled in February 2023. O’Reilly had previously pleaded guilty to the DuPage County gun case and received a three-year sentence.
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