A Machesney Park man will spend nine years in an Illinois prison for the hit-and-run death of a Rockford pedestrian, after a Winnebago County judge accepted his guilty plea on Wednesday, November 4. Phillip Wall, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated driving under the influence causing death in the January 25, 2025, death of Michelle Jones, 56, of Rockford, according to Winnebago County court records reported by Rockford News First.

Jones was struck in the 200 block of North Springfield Avenue in Rockford and was found in a roadside ditch, authorities say. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later. The Winnebago County coroner ruled that she died of blunt trauma from a motor vehicle-pedestrian crash. A memorial now stands near the 200 block of North Springfield Avenue where she was found.

The driver did not stay. Rockford police identified Wall as a suspect after the driver fled the scene, an arrest warrant was issued on February 21, 2025, and police said Wall turned himself in three days later. He has remained in custody since then, and the court gave him credit for 618 days already served — time that will count against the nine-year sentence.

A negotiated plea, and two counts dismissed

Wednesday's sentence came through a negotiated plea before Judge Philip Nicolosi. In exchange for Wall's guilty plea to the aggravated DUI count, prosecutors dismissed two other counts: failure to report a crash involving death, and failure to give information or aid in a crash involving injury or death — the charges that covered leaving the scene and not helping the woman he had struck.

A supplemental sentencing order also requires Wall to surrender his Firearm Owner's Identification (FOID) card and any firearms in his possession, court records show. That condition is separate from the prison term and takes effect as part of the judgment entered on Wednesday.

Why the charge carries this much time

Under Illinois law, aggravated driving under the influence that results in a death is among the most serious traffic offences in the state, carrying a prison range of three to 14 years — well beyond an ordinary DUI. Prosecutors must prove both the impairment and that the violation was the proximate cause of the death. Wall's nine-year term sits in the upper half of that range, reflecting a plea that spared both sides a trial while still imposing a long custodial sentence.

For Rockford, the case closes a file that began on a January night in 2025 on North Springfield Avenue — a residential stretch where Jones was walking when she was struck. Police have not released any additional suspect information in the case, and no other person was charged. Reporting on the sentencing carried no statement from Jones's family, and none is being attributed to them here.

Rockford News First reported the sentencing from Winnebago County court records on November 4, and updated its report early on November 5. Awaaz Punjab is reporting the outcome from those court records and from the police and coroner accounts carried in that reporting; the underlying crash investigation findings beyond those accounts have not been separately released.