The McHenry County Coroner's Office identified Magdalena Jablonska, 48, of Des Plaines, as the woman killed in the Fox River boat crash near the 1800-block of South Fernwood Lane in McHenry. She died from blunt force injuries to her body and head after a collision prosecutors say began when a pontoon boat entered a no-wake zone and hit another vessel.
Her name gives the case its human center, but the legal response is already moving fast. Richard Stevenson has been charged with reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence, and prosecutors said he was detained as the case moved forward. He is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 5.
What made the crash stand out was the speed prosecutors described. They said Stevenson was operating a 30-foot pontoon boat under the influence of alcohol at 80 miles per hour before striking a green Crownline boat from the rear. They also said a woman seated in the Crownline's passenger seat was driven over and decapitated, while her husband was taken to a hospital.
That account points to a collision that was not a simple mistake on open water. Prosecutors said a blood draw at the hospital allegedly showed Stevenson's blood alcohol concentration was 0.20, or 2.5 times the legal limit. They also said two other people were aboard his boat, left the scene Saturday and were later interviewed by police. Both passengers reported that Stevenson had taken multiple shots of Fireball whiskey that day, and one said he was traveling 80 miles per hour before the collision.
There is still a missing piece at the center of the crash: how Stevenson's pontoon got into the no-wake zone in the first place. Prosecutors said security footage from a home along the Fox River allegedly showed the pontoon on Saturday afternoon, with the family that provided the video saying their cameras captured it traveling south on the river and then, about an hour and 45 minutes later, heading north. Another video showed the boat passing by at 12:40 p.m., nearly two hours before the crash. The timeline suggests the boat had been on the water for some time before impact, but it does not explain why it was moving so fast in a restricted area.
Prosecutors also pointed to Stevenson's traffic-related history from 1997 to 2005, including three DUI arrests, four misdemeanor speeding offenses, three reckless driving offenses and fleeing and eluding police. They cited a 2023 misdemeanor speeding violation for driving 26 to 34 miles per hour over the limit as part of the pattern they say fits this case. With the victim identified and charges filed, the next court date will test how much of the crash can be proved by the video, the passengers' accounts and the blood test, and how much remains unanswered about the moments before the pontoon struck the Crownline.
