A guilty plea for second-degree murder has been entered against a Union County man who was responsible for a deadly car accident. The man apologized to the tearful family of the victim as he pleaded guilty in Union County Superior Court. He is being sentenced to between 207 and 258 months (approximately 17 – 20 years).
The circumstances surrounding the accident occurred when the man allegedly sped away from a traffic stop last October and collided head-on with another vehicle driven by the man. Surprisingly, the man had been convicted of five previous DWI’s since 2000, and was therefore also driving with a revoked license at the time. He is being charged with Second-Degree murder, Driving While Intoxicated, and Eluding Arrest.
In North Carolina, there are aggravating and mitigating factors in determining the level of punishment for a DWI charge. The man in this scenario had multiple aggravating factors leading to a drastically increased sentence.
He was driving under the influence, eluding arrest, driving while his license was revoked, driving with multiple previous DWI infractions, and most serious of all, someone was killed while he was operating his vehicle while intoxicated. .He will be facing serious aggravating charges for all of his indiscretions behind the wheel and multiple DWIs as mandatorily established by North Carolina law.
