Thread: Rally calls for tougher sentences in DUI cases

The Florida Times-Union

August 5, 2008

Rally calls for tougher sentences in DUI cases




By Teresa Stepzinski,
The Times-Union


BRUNSWICK - Friends of a Brunswick man killed by a drunken driver are staging a rally Thursday night to demand prosecutors stop making plea bargains in those cases.
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The "DUI Victims Rally" will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mary Ross Waterfront Park downtown, said Ramona Rowell, who is organizing the gathering along with other friends of the late Mikeal "Butterbean" Hodges.

Rowell hopes to establish a Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter in Brunswick. She is calling on victims, their families and friends to protest plea bargains in drunken driving cases.

Hodges, 18, was struck and killed about 12:30 a.m. Jan. 21 while riding a bicycle south on U.S. 17 northeast of the city.

Rowell's son was Hodges' best friend. Hodges, a Glynn Academy senior, was riding home to get some clothes then planned to return to her home, she said.

She said she is angry not only because Hodges was killed but as a result, her son and another teen living with their family have been traumatized and "scarred for life" by his death.

The driver, Enrique Martinez-Vasquez, a 24-year-old Mexican national living in Brunswick, was arrested by state troopers on charges of first-degree homicide by vehicle, hit-and-run, driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license and having an open container of alcohol in a car.

Martinez-Vasquez was sentenced to six years in prison July 29 after pleading guilty to hit-and-run and driving under the influence in a plea agreement that District Attorney Stephen Kelley said was made with approval from Hodges' family.

He received the maximum sentence possible on the charges and will be deported to Mexico upon his release from prison, Kelley said.

In Georgia hit-and-run cases involving a death, defendants generally serve 65 percent to 90 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for release from prison, he said.

Kelley said prosecutors dismissed the vehicular homicide charge, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, because of insufficient evidence.

"There was no way we were going to be able to convict him of homicide by vehicle," said Kelley, who explained the Georgia State Patrol investigation raised serious doubts about the cause of the collision.

An autopsy showed Hodges had marijuana in his system when he died, Kelley said.

Kelley said the investigation showed Hodges had been riding in one of the traffic lanes when he was struck - a finding disputed by a teenager who said he witnessed the collision.

Hodges was wearing dark clothes and riding a bicycle without lights or reflectors but did have a label warning against riding at night, Kelley said.

"If the victim was unable to be seen at night riding in the highway and swerved in front of a car, we have no way of disproving that to a jury," said Kelley.

As a result, it was unlikely a jury would have convicted Martinez-Vasquez on the homicide charge, he said.

Martinez-Vasquez told police that he thought he might have hit something in the road but wasn't sure, Kelley said.

Because it was not a blood alcohol test that was done, it was unknown how much alcohol Martinez-Vasquez had in his system when he hit Hodges, Kelley said. Because of a misunderstanding, troopers didn't get a search warrant to obtain the blood, he said.

"We did everything we could do in this case. We explained it all to his [Hodges] family, what we could prove and what we couldn't prove in this case," Kelley said.

teresa.stepzinski@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405




This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/s ... 2321.shtml.




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An eye for an eye...if a drunk driver gets behind the wheel of a car....and they hurt and/or kill someone that deserve the same or as close to equal punishment as possible.

Because it was not a blood alcohol test that was done, it was unknown how much alcohol Martinez-Vasquez had in his system when he hit Hodges, Kelley said. Because of a misunderstanding, troopers didn't get a search warrant to obtain the blood, he said.

Why does there always seem to be so many "misunderstandings" involving illegals that seem to play out to their benefit!