LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Clark County’s prime prosecutor mentioned lawmakers must amend Nevada regulation to extend penalties on the subject of impaired driving, including harder penalties would deter probably lethal habits.
“Whatever we’re doing right now isn’t working,” Clark County District Legal professional Steve Wolfson mentioned. “We’re not getting the message out because people are still doing it.”
Nevada regulation classifies an individual’s first DUI as a misdemeanor. It carries a possible jail sentence of 2-180 days, although the regulation is written to say the time might be served by group service. Judges can even revoke an individual’s license, problem a positive and get them organized to attend a category. Ought to an offender have a blood-alcohol stage of greater than 0.18% — greater than double the authorized restrict — a choose can order that particular person to remedy.
A DUI turns into a felony in Nevada after two earlier DUI convictions inside seven years. Nonetheless, the 8 Information Now Investigators discovered some individuals choose up DUI costs so shortly, their misdemeanors pile up.
Las Vegas Metro police arrested Alfredo Jauregui, 22, on Oct. 5 on costs of DUI leading to dying, information mentioned. Jauregui, who doesn’t have a driver’s license, is accused of killing George Brown, 48, as Brown was within the highway on Marion Drive close to Nellis Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue.
Brown’s dying marks Jauregui’s fifth DUI accusation since 2021, information mentioned. His third DUI conviction didn’t rise to a felony due to different concurrent circumstances.
“I think if people start to think, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to spend a few days in jail,’ that will deter many people,” Wolfson, a Democrat, mentioned.
An accused DUI driver will spend a while in jail as they sober up after their arrest, however even after a second DUI conviction, the 8 Information Now Investigators discovered judges typically sentence a now-repeat drunk driver to days, not months in jail.
With a number of failures to look, judges sentenced Jauregui to 98 days in jail for one case and 82 days in jail for 2 circumstances mixed, spokespeople for the cities of Henderson and Las Vegas mentioned.
Jemarcus Williams, 47, drove impaired on Nov. 30, 2023, colliding with Sgt. Michael Abbate and Trooper Alberto Felix on an Interstate 15 offramp close to Downtown Las Vegas. The 2 policemen have been standing on the aspect of the highway investigating a second DUI driver when Williams killed them.
A municipal court docket choose later sentenced that second DUI driver to 10 days in jail with the stipulation that he may serve on weekends solely.
Nevada regulation states penalties for a second DUI conviction inside seven years of an individual’s first might be robust, together with six months in jail, fines, license revocation and a required class.
“The laws are there — and our laws are tough,” Las Vegas Justice Courtroom Chief Choose Melisa De La Garza mentioned, including jail just isn’t all the time the reply.
“When they come out of the jail, are they any better? Is our community any safer? And the answer is probably, ‘no,’” she mentioned.
It prices taxpayers $240 a day to accommodate an inmate on the Clark County Detention Heart, De La Garza mentioned. The justice court docket’s DUI court docket, which sees on common 102 circumstances a day, can problem a suspended jail sentence, which means an individual will solely go to jail ought to they violate the phrases they agreed to.
In the long run, judges have discretion about sentencing and sometimes sentence an individual to a suspended jail sentence if they don’t change their habits. Oftentimes, judges will give a DUI defendant, no less than after their first or second offense, the chance to go to remedy and keep away from jail time.
“Initially, don’t we want to try and get to the root of the problem, so we don’t just have people coming in and out of our jail just circulating and coming back, and our community, quite honestly, is still at risk?” De La Garza mentioned.
“You should have to spend a minimum of five days in jail, OK? That will start to deter people,” Wolfson mentioned, agreeing that remedy and schooling are acceptable in some circumstances.
He worries others simply don’t care.
“I hope our legislators are listening because we need to do something,” Wolfson mentioned. “We need to increase the punishments. We need to change the laws so that we are deterring more people from drunk driving.”
In an interview in January, LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill additionally advised creating harder penalties to discourage drunk driving.
Each Wolfson and De La Garza implement the regulation. They don’t write it.
A memorial stands the place Metro police say Alfredo Jauregui killed George Brown on Marion Drive close to Nellis Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue. (KLAS)
Because the 8 Information Now Investigators first reported Monday, Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo needs harder penalties for DUI drivers, together with charging impaired drivers who kill one other particular person with second-degree homicide.
Nevada prosecutors, together with Wolfson’s workplace, have tried to cost DUI drivers, who kill an individual and who pace and who drive with no care for one more particular person’s life, with homicide, however the Nevada Supreme Courtroom dominated the DUI with dying regulation was extra acceptable.
Wolfson mentioned he helps the governor’s proposal.
One other proposal from Republican State Sen. Jeff Stone would amend the state’s vehicular murder regulation to kick in after an individual’s first DUI conviction ought to they then drive impaired and kill somebody — proper now, it’s three strikes and also you’re out.
De La Garza mentioned a committee was exploring how delays in testing, one other problem the 8 Information Now Investigators uncovered, can imply delays in justice.
For months, a choose couldn’t jail Jauregui — even amid his fourth DUI accusation — as a result of prosecutors had but to file costs towards him with out his blood outcomes. Ultimately, whereas awaiting a future court docket date, he drove impaired once more and killed Brown, police mentioned.
Lombardo’s proposal to amend the regulation to permit prosecutors to cost impaired drivers who trigger dying with second-degree homicide is a component of a bigger crime invoice, which had but to be launched as of Wednesday.
Whereas Monday marked the deadline for the governor to introduce his payments this legislative session, he’ll obtain a waiver as a result of the Legislative Counsel Bureau was not completed reviewing them, a spokesperson mentioned.
