CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Campton Hills man has pleaded guilty to beating his mother to death with a baseball bat in 2019, after he drunkenly mistook her for an intruder, according to prosecutors.
Thomas W. Summerwill, 23, agreed to four years of probation and 200 hours of community service in exchange for a guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter in the death of his mother, 53-year-old Mary B. Summerwill, the Kane County state’s attorney said.
Summerwill cannot consume alcohol and must wear an alcohol-monitoring device for the duration of his probation. He also must undergo intensive alcohol and grief counseling, as well as a psychological evaluation.
On the morning of March 24, 2019, Summerwill awoke to what he believed was an intruder in his bedroom, not realizing it was his mother, the Kane County State’s Attorney's Office said. He grabbed a baseball bat and struck Summerwill multiple times in the head.
After police found Mary Summerwill unconscious on the floor of her son’s bedroom, with Summerwill holding a towel to her head, he told officers, “I didn’t know it was my mother. Oh, my God, what did I do?”
An investigation revealed Summerwill’s blood-alcohol level was .270 — over five times the legal limit, and also had THC, marijuana's active ingredient, in his system.
Defense attorney Liam Dixon previously said Summerwill — then a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student — had just returned from a trip to Europe and may have been experiencing jet lag at the time of the attack.
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