The Modesto Bee has reported that a woman who had been convicted for a DUI that caused a fatality in 2001 has now been found guilty of a second DUI, and been sentenced to four years behind bars.
V.D., 46, is currently being held by the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department and will soon be transferred to state prison.
Attorney Frank Carson defended V.D. in court. Carson asked the judge to mitigate his client's sentence as she has health issues and family members in her care. However, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Thomas Zeff did not find that Carson's client deserved a lesser sentence. Instead, the judge said that V.D.'s behavior provided many aggravating factors – and it should have resulted in a longer prison sentence.
The prosecutor had sought a six year-sentence.
Deputy District Attorney Anthony Colacito commented, "Sadly, her alcoholism isn't going to get any better. She's already killed one person."
V.D.'s DUI history began on July 3, 2001 when she drove into the back of a bicyclist on Ninth Street in Modesto. The cyclist, W.G., 24, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. By July 9 of that same year V.D. was convicted for felony gross negligence vehicular manslaughter with intoxication. And by August 6 V.D. received a six-year suspended prison sentence.
However V.D. was warned at that time that if she violated her probation she could be ordered to prison. After one year behind bars she had five years of probation facing her.
Part of the probation included that V.D. avoid alcohol, she couldn't enter any bar, couldn't possess alcohol, must attend anti-DUI classes and go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
By July of 2008 V.D. had failed at least one of the stipulations of her probation: she had possessed alcohol. For that violation she was order to 120 days in jail.
Fast forward three years, and in September 10, 2011 V.D. was once again involved in a DUI collision. This time, while driving a Nissan Altima, she spun off a road in Keyes, and got stuck in a ditch. Her brother was riding as a passenger in the car. According to California Highway Patrol Officer Aaron Norseen, he had reason to believe that V.D. was a drunk driver and had her take a field sobriety breath test.
V.D.'s blood alcohol test proved to be 0.16 percent – which is twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent to drive a vehicle.
V.D. was recorded on video in the police cruiser on the way to jail. According to prosecutors she asked the arresting officer, "I take one little turnoff that was wrong and get stuck in the ditch and I'm tooken (sic) to jail, huh?"
A jury found V.D. guilty of DUI and driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or greater while having a previous DUI conviction on her record.
It took the jury five days to reach a verdict on December 23.
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