Bartlett Man Charged in Boating Accident that Killed Tony Borcia of Libertyville

A 50-year-old Bartlett man has been charged with reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence causing death in relation to the accident that killed July 28, on Petite Lake, in Lake Villa.

The Illinois Conservation Police arrested David Hatyina of Bartlett Aug. 13, said Ari Fisz, chief of felony review for the Lake County State's Attorney's Office. Hatyina's bond was set at $1 million at a hearing the morning of Aug. 14.

Fisz said according to police and crime laboratory reports, Hatyina was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol while operating his 29-foot Baja Outlaw power boat at a high rate of speed. Fisz said witnesses reported that Hatyina ran over and killed Borcia, "who was floating in the water, wearing a bright red life preserver, and waving his arms in an effort to be seen."

Witnesses said Borcia was riding on an inner tube with his 12-year-old sister while being towed around on a pontoon boat operated by their father, Jim, Fisz said. Borcia's 18-year-old sister and 15-year-old brother were also on the boat. Borcia fell off of the inner tube, and his father turned the boat around to pick him up.

"As he was turning the pontoon boat, (Jim) noticed a large white boat 'flying down the middle of the lake' and bearing down on his son," Fisz said in a prepared statement. "He and Tony's two oldest siblings waved their arms and yelled toward the oncoming boat, and then they watched as Hatyina ran over Tony."

After officers from the Lake County Marine Unit and the Illinois Conservation Police arrived on the scene, Hatyina was taken by police to a hospital to have his blood drawn for chemical testing. Fisz said the Illinois State Police Crime Lab results revealed both alcohol and cocaine in Hatyina's system.

Fisz said the "principle of retrograde extrapolation" was used to determine that Hatyina's blood alcohol content at the time of the accident was over the legal limit between .09 and .128.

"In this circumstance, blood was drawn four hours after the accident," Fisz said. A mathematical equation is used to explain the rate at which the body metabolizes alcohol, which helps determine what the blood alcohol content would have been hours before. "That's why there's a range."

The forensic scientist also found cocaine and cocaine metabolite in Hatyina's system, which led the scientist to determine that "Hatyina ingested cocaine within a matter of hours before the incident," Fisz said.

Fisz added that police spoke to a witness who, while boating on a nearby lake hours before the accident, saw a man matching Hatyina's description "driving recklessly on the lake at an excessive speed in the hours before the incident."

Fisz said a preliminary hearing has been set for Sept. 10, but he anticipates the case being indicted before then.

. He was the nephew of West Deerfield Township Supervisor Julie Morrison.