BigJoda

It amazes me that people still get drunk and get behind the wheel of a car.  Sadly, this is the all-too-often result.

Read the entire story at the Los Angeles Times:

Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver. Courtesy of the Huffingtonpost.

As Orange County prosecutors Friday filed murder charges against an accused drunk driver, loved ones of the three young people killed — a promising Angels pitcher, a Cal State Fullerton communications student and an aspiring sports agent — mourned their loss.

Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, of San Gabriel was charged with three counts of murder, hit and run and drunk driving in connection with the accident in Fullerton early Thursday.

Authorities said Gallo had a blood-alcohol content three times the legal limit of .08 when he blew through a red light. The Toyota Sienna minivan he was driving, prosecutors said, broadsided a Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by Courtney Frances Stewart, 20, killing her, Angels rookie Nick Adenhart, 22, and Henry Pearson, a 25-year-old law student from Manhattan Beach.

Courtney Stewart was killed by a drunk driver. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.

Jon Wilhite, 24, also of Manhattan Beach and a former catcher for the Cal State Fullerton Titans, remains hospitalized.

“This Angel and his two friends were too young to be sent to heaven,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference.

For Friday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox, the Angels wore patches with No. 34 in memory of their teammate, who had pitched an impressive six scoreless innings hours before the fatal accident.

At Cal State Fullerton, the cheer squad, sorority sisters, professors and classmates came together to mourn Stewart, a communications student, member of the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority and former cheerleader.

Stewart was remembered as a fun-loving sweetheart with a warm smile and a recognizable laugh who made friends easily.

Classmates such as Bobby Foster, a business marketing student, poured out their grief online by posting status updates to their Facebook pages.

“Such a sweet and charismatic girl, taken away from this cold, heartless world,” he wrote of Stewart. “May we all dry our crying eyes and realize she’s flying with angels in the skies.”

Stewart’s professors said she always sat in the front row, beaming a contagious smile.

“She was so beautiful, so bright,” recalled Alana Northrop, who had been Stewart’s political science professor, in a memorial of comments on a Web page set up by Cal State Fullerton: “There was no stuck-up-ness, she was genuine, a very special person.”

Pearson was an aspiring sports agent who had attended Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach with Wilhite. Both of them had played on the baseball team there.

“What a great kid,” Mira Costa baseball coach Mike Neily told insidebayarea.com. Pearson, he said, was a team captain and “one of these very likable boys.”

“He loved life and he was going to be a superstar at something,” Neily said. “I’d always call him a young Tom Cruise…”

Technorati Tags: Angels Pitcher, Nick Adenhart

What motivates someone who has virtually everything to throw it all away?  This guy is looking at 15 years if he is convicted.  His victim is dead.  That doesn’t seem like a fair trade to me.

Read the entire story at CNN:

Donte Stallworth allegedly killed a pedestrian while intoxicated. Courtesy of CNN.

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth was charged in Florida on Wednesday with killing a pedestrian while driving under the influence, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade County state attorney’s office said.

Authorities charged Stallworth, 28, with DUI manslaughter in the death of Mario Reyes, spokesman Ed Griffith said.

Stallworth is expected to surrender in court Thursday, Griffith said. The charge is a bondable offense, and bail is expected to be set at $200,000.

If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

According to Griffith, Stallworth’s blood-alcohol level after last month’s accident was measured at 0.126 percent, higher than the state’s legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Stallworth was drinking at a Miami Beach, Florida, club early March 14, court documents say. He later left the club and went to a Miami residence for about 45 minutes before leaving in his black Bentley GT at 7:07 a.m.

He was driving east on the MacArthur Causeway, which connects Miami to the South Beach area of Miami Beach, when he struck Reyes, prosecutors said. Reyes, a construction worker, was crossing the eastbound lanes of the causeway. CNN affiliate WSVN reported that he was heading to a bus stop after leaving work.

Reyes, 59, was struck by the right front and fender of the car and suffered critical head, chest and abdominal injuries, according to an affidavit. He died a short time later at a hospital.

Stallworth told the arriving officer, “I hit the man lying in the road,” the affidavit said. He said he had time to honk his horn and flash his headlights to alert Reyes, according to the documents. Police smelled alcohol on his breath, the documents said, and Stallworth provided a blood sample at the scene…

Technorati Tags: Cleveland Browns, NFL

Back when I was growing up, nobody went to jail for drunk driving.  Nowadays, people are incarcerated for life.  Better late than never.  Especially if you kill someone.  This was this guy’s fourth DWI arrest.  He even went so far as to disable his ignition switch device so he could drive drunk.

Read the entire story at the Montgomery County News:

A Montgomery County Jury sentenced Harold Blain Schmidt to life in prison Thursday after convicting him of felony murder in the May 11, 2008 Driving While Intoxicated Death of Lexie Edward Haynes, IV of Montgomery County, Texas. The felony murder charge was pursued as the result of the three prior Driving While Intoxicated convictions on Mr. Schmidt’s record. Mr. Schmidt’s blood alcohol content was approximately four times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

Brett Peabody and Rob Freyer presented the case for the State led by investigating Officer Jeff Smith of the Conroe Police Department. Officer Smith testified that while on bond following an arrest for his fourth DWI, Mr. Schmidt failed to yield the right of way to a motorcycle being driven by Mr. Haynes. The defendant had disabled the ignition interlock device he was required to have on his vehicle as a condition of his bond. Cheryl Haynes, Mr. Haynes’s wife, was a passenger on the motorcycle, and is permanently disabled as a result of the crash. The jury sentenced the defendant to the maximum of 20 years in prison for the Intoxication Assault charge associated with her injuries. They also handed down two 16 year sentences to Mr. Schmidt for fleeing from the scene of the accident and running to hide in the woods. Maximum fines were assessed in each count…

Technorati Tags: DWI Life Sentence

Someone needs to lock this guy up for say, oh, how about 19 years.  That would give him some time to dry up.  I’m amazed he has not yet killed someone.  I hope the court throws the book at this guy!

Read the entire story at WCPO:

Serial drunk driver Antonio Fears. Courtesy of WCPO.

A driver who allegedly led local police on a chase Sunday has had his license suspended 19 times, according to authorities.

St. Bernard Police arrested 38-year-old Antonio Fears of Mt. Airy Sunday night following a pursuit that began on Spring Grove Avenue.

Police say they tried to pull him over, but he continued to swerve and just barely missed striking pedestrians. At one point, police say he was driving almost 60 miles per hour in a 35 miles per hour zone.

Officers took Fears into custody at gunpoint after he finally stopped…

Technorati Tags: 19 DUI Arrests

It’s bad enough that school buses don’t even have seat belts.  Now this clown has to drive around town half sauced out of his skull with over 100 kids in his bus.  This should be felony child endangerment as far as I’m concerned.

Read the entire story at Indystar:

Franklin Township school district police on Tuesday arrested a school bus driver suspected of driving 104 students home while he was intoxicated, police said.

Phillip K. Leslie, 47, was held in the Marion County Jail on initial charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, child neglect and public intoxication, records show.

Police were called after students on the bus told their parents Leslie appeared to be drunk, said Sgt. Paul Thompson, a spokesman for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

“He had 104 kids on his bus (Tuesday) afternoon in two routes,” Thompson said.

School district officers arrested Leslie when he returned the bus to the school district parking lot…

Technorati Tags: Drunk School Bus Driver