DeKALB – Clarence Kleinfeldt doesn’t feel much better knowing the man who crashed into his daughter’s vehicle, ultimately killing her and injuring his grandson, faces a criminal charge.
“I hate to see anybody get in trouble for anything,” Kleinfeldt, 61, of Hinckley said. “But I cry every day, and now these children are without a mother.”
DeKalb police said Kevin D. Taylor, 48, of the 600 block of Walnut Avenue in Maple Park, was driving south on Peace Road in a black Ford Mustang about
5 p.m. Jan. 24. He was going at least
80 mph when he lost control of the vehicle near DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport, crossed into the path of oncoming traffic and slammed into a white Toyota driven by Rachel Jimenez, a 40-year-old single mother of three.
Jimenez suffered multiple injuries including a broken back, but she held on for a week before she died Feb. 1 at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. Her 13-year-old son, Isaac, had surgery at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital and was released.
Taylor also was flown to Saint Anthony Medical Center, where he was treated for what DeKalb police Cmdr. Steve Lekkas called “fairly significant” injuries.
Months of investigation led to a warrant for Taylor’s arrest being issued Tuesday by Judge Philip Montgomery. Taylor has been charged with reckless homicide and, if convicted, could face two to five years in prison. He would be eligible for probation.
Rachel’s story
Kleinfeldt said his daughter was a drill sergeant.
“You either did things the way she wanted it, or she took stuff away,” he said. “She didn’t play games.”
She was paying forward what she’d learned, dad said.
“She never got a spanking from me in her life, as long as she was alive,” Kleinfeldt said. “She was a good kid. She was caring, funny – I call it goofy. She always got me stuff that said, ‘Dad.’ ”
The hard line she took as a mom complemented her big heart. A Tails Humane Society volunteer, she and Isaac were on their way to help a woman get her house ready to foster a dog at the time of the crash. Kleinfeldt said his daughter fostered as many as a dozen dogs at one point.
He struggles when he thinks about the irony of a crash leading to his daughter’s death. Jimenez had lived in North Aurora, then Oswego, before moving to Waterman about two months before the crash. Between commuting to her job of 20 years at Cracker Barrel in Naperville and bringing the children to Hinckley to see grandpa, she and her odometer were working overtime.
“Then something stupid like this happens when you’re doing something to help somebody,” Kleinfeldt said.
Isaac and his older brother, Adrian, 17, since have moved to Aurora to live with their father, Francisco Jimenez, who filed a lawsuit April 4 against Taylor seeking more than $50,000 in damages. Jimenez’s oldest, Joslyn, 18, lives with Kleinfeldt and recently graduated from Indian Creek High School.
Jimenez graduated from Sandwich High School in 1995, and if there’s a tribute to her legacy, it’s this: After her death, Isaac’s grades took off.
“Since the accident, he’s excelled at everything; his grades came up,” Kleinfeldt said, getting choked up. “She’s probably looking down.”
Jimenez grew up living with her mother, Ellen Wells, alongside whom she’s buried in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Aurora, Kleinfeldt said. Kleinfeldt and Wells divorced about
40 years ago, when Rachel was only
6 months old, and Wells died a couple of years ago, Kleinfeldt said.
Moving forward
Lekkas said it took about four months for charges to be filed against Taylor because everyone involved was injured, and because of the extent of the follow-up investigation required.
State police officers checked the airbag control modules in the vehicles, and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office did a thorough investigation, as well. Lekkas said the investigation found no indication drugs or alcohol were a factor.
“We needed to put all that together and make sure it was thorough before the final review with the state’s attorney’s office,” Lekkas said.
Joslyn Jimenez is going to take classes at Waubonsee Community College. Kleinfeldt said staff at Indian Creek High School have said Adrian could be valedictorian next year. Isaac, who Kleinfeldt said has fully healed, is thriving somehow. They’re all doing so with a void in their hearts.
Although money won’t fill that, a GoFundMe page was set up with a goal of $5,000, but has doubled, raising more than $10,000 for the family from almost 200 donors.
Francisco Jimenez’s civil case is due back in court at 9 a.m. July 10. Kleinfeldt said he’s considered suing Taylor, but that he’s been advised not to, because if Taylor files for bankruptcy, Kleinfeldt could be out thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees.
“That’s another thing I say is not fair,” he said. “These kids are going to grow up withOUT a mother. I’m mom, dad, grandpa, grandma and everything. It’s not fair to them. Not fair to any of us.”