Articles Posted in DUI – Driving Under the Influence in Jacksonville

A Jacksonville man was sentenced last week to 15 years in state prison for a crash that killed his best friend in 2010. Klay Williams was convicted of DUI manslaughter in January and was facing up to 15 years in prison, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. The judge this week handed down the maximum possible sentence, reasoning that the crash itself and Williams’ actions following the crash justified the sentence, the newspaper reported.

Williams was speeding in his pick-up truck about 10:30 p.m. when he hit a fence. The fence shattered and part of it hit his friend Mitchell Green in the head and knocked Green unconscious, the newspaper reported. The point prosecutors seemed to hammer in the sentencing is when a neighbor and a paramedic responded to the Jacksonville DUI crash, Williams was outside of the truck and told him he was fine – making no mention of Green being passed out inside the truck. The neighbor saw Green and alerted the paramedic. Green died from his injuries a week later, the newspaper reported. Williams also initially told police that Green was driving, which was later proven to be untrue.

When it comes to sentencing in Jacksonville DUI cases, or any other case for that matter, an attempted cover-up can be more detrimental to a person than the actual crime itself. In Williams’ case, there didn’t appear to be any effort to help his friend, and prosecutors inferred that a delay in medical help could have been a factor in Green dying from his injuries. That’s tough to overcome in a sentencing, especially when the victim is the supposed to be defendant’s best friend. Williams’ blood-alcohol level was .17 – more than double the legal limit of .08.

A Jacksonville jury found a man guilty of DUI manslaughter in Duval County in connection with a 2010 crash that killed his 21-year-old friend. Klay Williams was found guilty last week of the second-degree felony and will be sentenced in March, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. Williams, 22, faces up to 15 years in prison. Police said Williams was speeding in his pickup truck when he hit a fence and pieces of that shattered fence hit Mitchell Curtis Green in the head, the newspaper reported.

A neighbor and the first paramedic said they both talked to Williams outside of the truck, who said he was fine but made no mention of Green being unconscious inside the truck, the newspaper reported. The neighbor then looked in and saw Green, who was treated by paramedics but died a week later. Williams’ blood-alcohol level came back at .17 – more than double the legal limit of .08.

Jacksonville DUI cases are almost always misdemeanor cases, but when people are seriously injured or killed by an intoxicated driver, that driver then faces Duval County felony charges. There are varying levels of misdemeanors crimes, but the overarching point from a defendant’s perspective is the maximum time someone can be incarcerated for if convicted of a misdemeanor is one year in the county jail. The state prison system is only for people who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to felonies in Florida.

A former professional football player living in Jacksonville was arrested last week and charged with DUI manslaughter for his role in an accident that killed a Louisiana man last month. Police say Dann Rockne Lute, 53, failed to see traffic backed up on Butler Boulevard about 5:15 p.m. when people were lined up exit onto Hodges Boulevard, an area that is typically congested at the time of day, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. Lute rammed into the back of a sport-utility vehicle and killed the driver, the newspaper reported. The two cars in front of the man Lute hit were also damaged in the chain-reaction and one of the drivers had minor injuries, the newspaper reported.

Lute is now charged with Florida DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in state prison. He is also charged with three counts of DUI causing property damage, one each for the three cars that were damaged in the wreck. All three property damage charges are Jacksonville misdemeanor counts. It’s the manslaughter charge that is by far the most serious of these Jacksonville DUI cases and the one that will receive the most attention.

Typically when a person is charged several weeks after the crash like Lute is – the accident was Dec. 13 and he was arrested Jan. 10 – there is some sort of test that has come back to warrant the charge. In Lute’s case, it is likely a blood test that revealed his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit of .08, though nothing in the newspaper report indicates that’s the evidence. But, as a Jacksonville DUI attorney, a month is about the standard time for results to be tested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and returned to the police in a case of this magnitude. One significant difference in a case when an injury or death is involved is that police can take the blood of a driver, whether they consent or not. That is in stark contrast to a standard, Duval County misdemeanor DUI where a driver can refuse to do submit to a breath test, which often limits the evidence prosecutors will have to prove at trial the defendant was intoxicated. So in a DUI manslaughter case, not only are the stakes higher but the defense can also be limited because the blood test is a piece of the evidence. Not to mention, juries tend to see blood results as more accurate than breath tests anyway.

A Georgia Tech assistant basketball coach was arrested for DUI while in Jacksonville this month on a recruiting trip. Postorino was arrested about 3:20 a.m. Dec. 9 and released from jail that afternoon, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He is facing a Duval County misdemeanor DUI charge, which has a maximum penalty of six months in jail, though it is extremely rare for a person to be sentenced to jail on a first DUI charge.

A more common sentence for first-time DUI defendants is probation, a driver’s license suspension and a fine. But that’s assuming Postorino is either found guilty of or ends up pleading to the DUI. There’s a strict set of rules officers must follow when making DUI arrests. Our Jacksonville DUI attorney at The Mussallem Law Firm, P.A., has represented hundreds of clients charged with DUI in Duval, Clay and Nassau Counties and investigates fully to make sure each step was followed. In some cases, the DUI is reduced to reckless driving – which not only has less serious penalties, but also keeps a DUI off a person’s record.

Many times, a DUI defense hinges on how the arrest was made and how the tests are conducted. A DUI always starts with a traffic stop and the officer must have a reasonable suspicion that you’re committing a crime or traffic infraction before he or she even approaches your vehicle. Postorino also has a ticket for crossing the median, so that’s likely what police will say led the officer to pull him over. After the officer makes contact with you, he or she must see or detect more suspicious activity before asking you to perform field sobriety exercises. The typical reasons our Jacksonville DUI Attorney has seen in police reports through the years are: red or watery eyes, a subject smelling like alcohol, slurred speech or the person swaying when he or she stood or walked.

The state has two weeks to charge the man behind the wheel in a Jacksonville Landing hit-and-run death with a felony, or a judge will accept his guilty plea to a misdemeanor DUI in Duval County. Brain Patterson tried to plead guilty to the misdemeanor DUI last week related to the August case, just one week after picking up another DUI in Baker County, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. The first Jacksonville Driving Under the Influence charge came after Patterson was being beaten on his way to his car following a nightclub dispute and, when he sped off, a man on the hood of his car fell of and Patterson ran him over. The man died days later at a local hospital.

The Duval County assistant state attorney said his decision to seek a Duval County felony charge is not related to Patterson’s second DUI, the newspaper reported. As a Jacksonville DUI attorney, that argument sounds pretty thin. The incident occurred in August and, two weeks later, the state filed a murder charge against the man who was beating Patterson while Patterson tried to drive away.

Patterson was arrested and charged with a DUI in October, once the blood results came back from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He had two court dates in November, but when he tried to enter a plea last week to the Jacksonville criminal charge, the state objected and the judge gave the state two weeks to file new charges.

A Jacksonville man who had been out on bail on a Duval County DUI for an accident that killed a man at the Jacksonville Landing is now back in jail after being arrested for Driving Under the Influence again. The judge revoked his bond and Brian Patterson, 32, is not expected to be released until the Landing case is resolved, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. Patterson was arrested last week for a DUI in Baker County after police pulled him over just before 3 a.m. for driving erratically and the officer smelled alcohol, found a beer bottle in a cup holder and saw an empty beer can inside the car, the newspaper reported.

Legally, the two cases are not connected. In the Landing case, Patterson was being beaten after leaving a nightclub in August and tried to flee in his truck. Taylor Evans was on the hood of the truck, fell off and died in a local hospital days after Patterson ran him over and drove away, the newspaper reported. One of the men beating Patterson was charged with murder and Patterson was charged in October with a misdemeanor DUI charge in Jacksonville, Florida. Since it was Patterson’s first Duval County DUI, his maximum penalty is six months in jail. Even with the second arrest, that maximum penalty cannot legally increase.

But make no mistake, the second arrest will almost certainly play a role in Patterson’s sentence, if he is convicted in the Landing case or decides to plead to the Drunk Driving charge. Signs of remorse and that a defendant has learned his or her lesson go a long way for judges in determining a sentence. Picking up another DUI just three months after drinking and driving in a case where a person was killed will not sit well at all in the mind of the court. Rarely does a person receive any jail time for a first conviction on a DUI in Jacksonville, but the circumstances of Patterson’s case – most notably that Evans was killed – may have made it more likely for his sentence to include time behind bars. This latest arrest would seem to increase the likelihood that Patterson’s sentence will include some sort of jail time.

Two months after trying to flee a beating and then running over and killing a man with his truck, a driver was charged with Duval County DUI in the crash. Brian Patterson was arrested on a Jacksonville DUI charge last month after tests showed he had a blood-alcohol level of .127, above the legal limit of .08, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. The man accused of beating Patterson at the time, Greg Johnson, was charged with murder for his role in the death of Taylor Evans, the newspaper reported in August. Johnson has pleaded not guilty to murder and faces up to life in prison. There have been various stories as to what happened Aug. 10 at the Jacksonville Landing, but police have determined, according to the newspaper, that a brawl ensued and Patterson was chased to his car and was being hit by Johnson even as he tried to leave. Police said Evans was also involved and was pounding on the hood of Johnson’s truck when he fell off and was run over, the newspaper reported. Other witnesses have said Evans was not involved in the fight and was simply walking with a friend to her car when he was struck, the newspaper reported.

Police did not identify the driver before Patterson was arrested in Jacksonville. It is very telling that Patterson was charged simply with Jacksonville driving under the influence, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. There are certainly more severe charges that Patterson technically could have faced – namely Jacksonville DUI manslaughter and leaving the scene, a Florida first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. But the state had already made its decision on who was at fault in Evans’ death – Johnson and not Patterson. First of all, the state would have a hard time charging both men with what are essentially murder charges. Either Johnson’s driving or Patterson’s beating caused the death and the state would have an incredibly difficult time proving both. The notion that Patterson was leaving because he was scared makes it even tougher to charge him with leaving the scene of an accident in Jacksonville. If he was leaving to escape, he sure wasn’t going to come back on his own – even if it was to help Evans.

It will be interesting to see if the state tries to hold Patterson to a different standard on misdemeanor DUI because there was a death involved. As a Jacksonville DUI Attorney, one would certainly hope not. If prosecutors could prove it then fine, charge him with a more severe crime, but don’t pick a lesser crime and try to enforce more penalties as some sort of trade-off. Very rarely does anyone picked up on their first DUI spend any time in jail – other than the first night the person is arrested.

A man pulled over for driving all over a Clay County road and eventually arrested for Driving Under The Influence told police his driving was erratic because a squirrel was biting him as he drove. The man did have a baby squirrel wrapped up in his shirt when police came to his window, but the officer also smelled alcohol beverages coming from the driver, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. None of the local media reports on the Clay County arrest include information on whether the 24-year-old suspect, Warren Thomas Michael III, had any visible bite marks on his chest or stomach. Evidence of bite marks could be of some help as a defense, but the biggest issue for Michael will likely be two breath tests. The came back .145 and .156, both approaching double the legal limit of .08.

DUI arrests in Clay, Duval and Nassau Counties are among the most subjective arrests in that without some sort of breath or blood test, there is typically very little evidence. In some cases, there is a dashboard video which could let a jury see for itself and try to determine whether the person looks to be under the influence. In most cases, DUI suspects end up taking the breath test and unwittingly give prosecutors everything they need to lock up the case. Take Michael’s case, for example. Prosecutors could argue that it wouldn’t matter if it’s a squirrel, a raccoon or an elephant in the truck, he was still close to double the legal limit and thereby guilty of the Clay County DUI has was charged with. But without the breath test, it could be a different story.

DUI cases in Northeast Florida have a mountain of specific procedures and rules that police must follow, and a slip-up by the officer could lead to the stop being suppressed and not part of the evidence the state could use at trial. And, in Florida DUI cases, without a traffic stop there is most likely not a case at all. Many people either don’t know they can refuse to take a breath test, or are afraid to do so. Refusing will almost always result in an automatic one-year suspension of a person’s driver license – and police will be sure to point that out to the suspect if he or she thinks that might make a person more likely to consent to the test. Also, many people want to take the test to prove they are not impaired, which is also human nature. Research has shown that, especially when people are right around the legal limit of .08, they believe their motor skills and overall functionality are better than they really are. But Clay County DUI cases are much more likely to work out in the defendant’s favor if there is not breath test evidence, especially one that comes in well above the legal limit of .08. Just as a point of reference, a 200-pound man who has more than three drinks in an hour would blow above a .08 and then be considered legally intoxicated.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a DUI case that is expected to clarify when police are allowed to force a blood draw on a person suspected of DUI. The court’s opinion, now expected to come down in early 2013, will likely have a far-reaching, nationwide impact on a suspect’s right to refuse a blood test after being arrested for DUI in Jacksonville and elsewhere. The case at issue, discussed in an article in the Florida Times Union, involves a Missouri man who was pulled over for driving erratically. The officer said the driver smelled of alcoholic beverages and was slurring his words. But, when police asked him to take a breath test – a common procedure in a Duval County DUI case – the suspect refused. The officer then drove the man to a lab and ordered the man’s blood to be taken, without even attempting to get a warrant.

The suspect’s blood-alcohol level was nearly double the legal limit and he was arrested for DUI. But a judge ruled the blood test was not admissible. Appellate courts have agreed, but Missouri prosecutors have continued to pursue the case up the judicial ladder, reaching the peak last week when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Like most other states, Florida has what is called an implied consent law. Basically, it means that by getting a driver’s license, a person agrees to submit to a breath or blood test when an officer asks. A suspect can refuse – and many do – but the person then faces having his or her driver’s license suspended for one year. If someone refuses a second time on a separate arrest, he or she can be charged with what’s called a “criminal refusal.” It’s a first-degree misdemeanor in Jacksonville with a maximum penalty of one year in the county jail and, this time, the license suspension is 18 months.

The implied consent is key in Florida when it comes to a blood test. In most Jacksonville Driving Under the Influence cases, police would just rely on a breath test. But, if there is an accident and police suspect the driver is under the influence but he or she is injured and cannot communicate, police are legally allowed to take his or her blood. If a person is not capable off refusing, they have legally consented – according to the applied consent law. The issue is the Missouri case the Supreme Court will hear is a little different. In that case, the suspect did refuse, but police took blood anyway. Prosecutors argued that it was at 2 a.m., it was difficult to get a warrant, so police just took the blood. Convenience isn’t typically a reason to not follow the law, and the court battle ensued. The suspect clearly refused to take the test but was forced to by police and that’s now the major issue at hand.

Jacksonville Jaguars draft pick Justin Blackmon pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor DUI charge stemming from a June arrest in Oklahoma. Blackmon’s blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit of .08, but he received the standard sentence of probation, fines and alcohol awareness courses that most first-time Jacksonville DUI offenders receive, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. Blackmon was fined $500, will have to pay court costs, serve 50 hours of community service and take courses. All phases can be completed on Probation in Jacksonville, where Blackmon was scheduled to report last week for training camp. His driver’s license will also be suspended for a year, which could be reduced if he has a device installed on his vehicle that measures the alcohol level in his breath before the car will start. Blackmon was arrested for Driving Under the Influence on June 3 for driving 60 mph in a 35 mph about 3 a.m., the newspaper reported. The Drunk Driving arrest came just more than a month after the Jacksonville Jaguars selected the wide receiver from Oklahoma State University with the 5th pick in the National Football League draft. Police stopped him for speeding, said he had a smelled of alcoholic beverages and was unsteady on his feet. He blew a .24 and a second test registered a .26, the newspaper reported.

While Blackmon is legally a first-time DUI offender, this was not his first brush with the law regarding alcohol. Blackmon was arrested for DUI in 2010, but that charge was reduced to possession of alcohol by a minor, the newspaper reported. Any penalty for a second offense would hinge on a second conviction, not just a second arrest. The June case was resolved fairly quickly, taking only just six weeks to work out. Much of that was because of Blackmon’s circumstances. The Jacksonville Jaguars appeared to have been waiting for the case to resolve before embarking on serious contract discussions with Blackmon. A deal was still not in place when the Jaguars began training camp last weekend.

Whether you are a professional football player, an accountant or a waiter or waitress, a Duval County DUI can have serious implications on your employment. The biggest issue will likely be your ability to drive. Even outside of the Florida DUI penalties, the Department of Motor Vehicles can suspend your license – even if your DUI is dropped or lowered to a lesser charge. Our Jacksonville DUI Attorney can help arrange a temporary license while our attorneys investigate in advance of your “Formal Review Hearing” before the DMV. You have 10 days from your arrest to request and reserve your right to a hearing. If at that hearing the DMV finds the suspension invalid, your license will be fully restored administratively – and your Jacksonville Criminal DUI case is also helped significantly. Police have a very specific set of procedures they must follow in Duval, Clay and Nassau DUI arrests, and our experienced Jacksonville DUI Attorney knows them inside and out. Our Northeast Florida DUI Lawyer will review all aspects of your case and advise you on your best options to move forward and move on from the Jacksonville arrest.