Posted on 11/25/2012 10:36:04 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
Comal County, Tex. (CBS HOUSTON) – A Guadalupe County man arrested for his eighth DWI has been sentenced to life in prison after being pulled over last February with a Blood Alcohol level equivalent to consuming 23.5 beers.
In late February, authorities say Cornelio Garcia-Mata was driving nearly six times the legal alcohol limit, when he was pulled over around 6 p.m. off Interstate 35 in New Braunfels, WOAI-TV reports. Garcia-Mata got his first DWI in 1990. While on probation, he picked up his second. Since he’s a habitual offender he faced 25 years to life in prison for his latest offense.
“Subsequent blood tests shows that his blood alcohol was .446,” Comal County Chief Felony Prosecutor, Sammy McCrary told the court, according to WOAI. “It was a good verdict for the community. That’s somebody we won’t have to worry about killing somebody.”
In a video posted on YouTube from Feb. 26, 2012, an officer’s dashboard camera shows Garcia-Mata swerving in his truck before being pulled over on suspicion of intoxication. “How much alcohol have you been drinking today?” asks the officer. “I’m not drinking,” Garcia-Mata replied in slurred speech.
Prosecutors said his blood-alcohol level was five times the legal limit.
He has been held since then at the Comal County Jail without bond after a hold was placed on his release by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He was indicted in May, arraigned in June, and went to trial on Tuesday last week in front of a Comal County jury. They later returned a guilty verdict and a finding that Garcia-Mata’s vehicle was a deadly weapon because of his previous felony DWI convictions.
What would normally be a third degree felony with a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, became a 1st degree felony with a possible sentence of 25 years to life, KGNB Radio reported. After deliberating for only 20 minutes, the jury returned with the maximum penalty: life in prison.
In 2008, Garcia-Mata served less than two years of a six-year sentence, McCrary told WOAI. Garcia-Mata had seven prior DWI convictions out of Guadalupe County, which included felony charges. Garcia-Mata now awaits transfer into the state prison system.
Garcia-Mata will be eligible for parole in 30 years – when he is 75 years old.
“A world without alcohol” is not the same thing as “a world with laws against alcohol.”
It is interesting that you have to stretch my comments to include that ROBBERY is not property damage. You clearly didn’t even stop to THINK and instead typed a quick emotional response. Take a look at my next post and maybe you will think for a moment.
I finished my post to you that EVERY driver causing personal or property damage to others should be treated equally! All of them. Death is death. Of course that assumes that you have an interest in making the roads safer and not interested in propagating the revenue collection machine that is what is really behind the DUI madness.
Thanks!
“I WILL celebrate his being someone’s wife in prison.”
One more thing, do you realize that you are advocating RAPE as an appropriate punishment for someone that you admit DID NOT cause another person any physical or property damage? What other risky behaviour gives me the right to rape someone? If I see someone leave a bar and get into their car, can I yank her out and justifiably rape her?
There are many things of this world that it would be better if they did not exist, sadly we have trials and tribulations that test our characters. Since neither of us is God and we did not have any input in those decisions, then I can only assume that you were advocating the use of Government to create the utopia you were advocating.
My bad.
“Sounds like you had a tough (but fair) break. Hope this taught you a lesson and you have stopped drinking and driving. “
Not me, and even the friends that I know with them all said they deserved it. But I have driven at just above the limit in the (long) past, and with one (stupid, but very lucky) exception, never felt that I was driving unsafe.
Read some of the blogs from drunk driving lawyers - did you know that people (in 2 cases) have gotten DUIs while working on their cars, on jack stands? In one case it was his own driveway, another it was an apartment parking lot. In both cases, the “driver” had “operational control” of the vehicle, and thus could be arrested (neighbors called in both cases, because of noise). I suspect that they “got off”, but only after spending thousands to defend themselves...because they were legitimate arrests - based on current laws.
Lots more stories out there...
“Wrong. It is as you describe because the police are after the most easily obtained revenue.”
Yes, that does play in. But there’s a lot of opposition, from bar and restaurant owners. What gets this legislation over the finish line and gives MADD their credibility are people like this clown - always getting to drive again.
Spot on.
DUI’s in our state consist of having more than 1 cocktail in an hour basically and will cost you plenty. It is a money making scheme for the most part.
Danger to society? I think we have progressed very far. If cops or anyone else was interested in protecting drivers, they would also go after cell phone users and texters who wander all over the road, blow stop lights, drive at half the speed limit, sit at the lights when they turn green, etc.
They drive much more impaired then someone who has had 1 drink.
We have teen deaths all over because of this, but there is no breathalyzer or blood test that can prove it.
I am mortified at the soccer moms and all manner of people who are completely oblivious to their surroundings when texting or yapping on cell phones when driving. I’ll take a guy whose had 1-2 drinks driving next to me over one of these idiots.
Cell phone use should be considered Driving While Impaired as well, and the penalty should be the same. I am not saying drinking is good, I’m saying they are equal in my book. I have no respect for anyone who has a car or van full of kids driving around texting and playing with their phone, the same as I would an adult drinking with a car full of kids.
I’ll know they are serious about safety, when getting out of a cell-phone in car ticket costs around $12,000 as a DUI does here.
Don’t give me that BS!!! I said if they kill or maim someone then throw the book at them!!! Being behind the wheel drunk is not the same as firing a gun into a crowd!!! it is getting so bad out there they are turning rapist and murderers out so they can put a drunk behind bars for a couple years!!! We don’t have the space... Making more jails is not the answer!!!
Thats a pretty silly reason to give this guy a pass. He’s had 8 chances, how many more does he need?
Ah heck just hang him until dead!! he guys and your whining and sniveling... There ought to be a law... That is the problem there are too many laws!!!
After the second DUI, confiscate the car and driver’s license and leave the driver and passengers by the side of the road.
After the third DUI, put a bullet in the drivers head.
Problem solved. No over crowded jails.
Hey that is your solution!!!
his stupid. these laws are stupid. the guy has an addiction. the laws that take away driver’s licenses for 10 years are stupid too.
I agree!! He should be punished if he maims or kills someone!! 25 to 30 ought to do it no exceptions!!
We don’t need any more laws. This guy would be too drunk to follow em anyway.
Eight DUI’s ya know.
Perhaps you can volunteer a member of your family up to die since you feel so sorry for this drunk.
So if a guy walks around downtown drunk firing a
Rifle repeatedly, has done this multiple times in the past, it’s okay as long as no oe gets hurt because he’s lucky and or a lousy shot.
I’m a an ER doc, okay for me to come to work plastered or high because I haven’t killed anyone ..... Yet?
"Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity."
Agreed. And I don't think that any of us would cry many tears over his demise but his actions are not the kind that would kill him but that would kill other people.
You can't make the stupid smart but you can at least attempt to prevent them from harming others.
No forgetting history here, alcohol has left a ton of tragic history behind it.
and if you don’t like a post you don’t necessarily have to reply....
“What gets this legislation over the finish line and gives MADD their credibility are people like this clown - always getting to drive again.”
You can think that all day long, but the fact of the matter is that if it were true, then our “legal” BAC would not have been reduced to .08 and MADD wouldn’t be pushing for still lower limits. Data shows that the true improvement in safety (lower number of accidents/deaths) was from .16 to .12, and there was statistically no improvement from .12 to .08.
What we have seen is a SUCCESS in educating the public and as a result responsible persons were able to know when they had “had to much” to drive. That breakpoint is usually from 0.10 to 0.12, however there is no money in that. So, we had to have a reduction to .08 to ensnare the same quantity of persons, while having no impact on safety.
These guys are tools, but they are nothing but that. The fact that these tools become usable for governments to advance is simply not worth it to me.
So has humanity in general. It is part of what we face as a result of a certain couple partaking of the tree of knowledge.
What we do know is that prohibition created much higher volume of hardships than we see from alcohol. If you doubt that it would still “be happening” today, then just look at the WOsD and how many innocent people are shot on “accident” by the authorities....
I believe that all tragedy is heartbreaking for those involved, however I also know that we can not eliminate all tragedy. I would prefer to maximize individual freedom, while also maximizing individual responsibility. Therefore, if you are a good driver with .08 (or whatever) BAC and you do not cause property or personal damage to others, then have at it. If you are a bad sober driver that causes personal or property damage to others, then you have caused a tragedy.
Any driver that causes damage to others’ property or persons should be prosecuted equally. Drinkers or teatotallers, I don’t rightly care. I am more concerned with ACTUAL safety and accountability.
You won't find much support here for your point of view on this. 30+ years of intensive indoctrination in favor of enforcing pre-crime laws has pretty much left a giant blind spot in the nation's psyche about such things.This blind spot has grown to such an extreme that in many jurisdictions, if you are driving and make a determination that you are impaired, and you pull off the road into a parking lot or something, to sleep it off, you can still be arrested. The nanny state doesn't care that you showed enough judgement to attempt to do the right thing. You're actually better off just trying to make it the rest of the way home because our legal system is largely run by the criminally insane.
Personally, I think it is stupid to the extreme to drink and drive, but I don't see it as criminal in and of itself unless there some actual victim. The penalty for causing actual harm, either property or personal should be pretty darn high IMO, because stupidity should be punished, but given the number of Obama voters there are out there, apparently stupidity itself is not (yet) a crime.
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