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Court sends teen to jail for DUI, reckless driving
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Posted on Nov 17 2004
The 17-year-old driver of a pickup truck that smashed into a light post, resulting in the death of his 13-year-old passenger, was ordered to serve 18 months of a partially suspended five-year prison term by the Superior Court yesterday.
Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama imposed the five-year prison term on Raymond B. Blas, whom he convicted earlier this month of driving under the influence of alcohol and reckless driving.
A jury, however, acquitted Blas on a charge of vehicular homicide after trial.
Lizama also imposed a $1,100 fine against Blas and directed the teenager to write a letter of apology to the family of the 13-year-old boy.
The judge directed Blas to report to the Department of Corrections on Nov. 29, or he will issue an arrest warrant against the defendant.
According to assistant attorney general Grant D. Sanders, Blas was driving a pickup truck on the wee hours after Christmas Day, or on Dec. 26, 2003, when the vehicle rammed into a light post, throwing the 13-year-old passenger out of the vehicle.
Sanders said the victim was rushed to the Commonwealth Health Center, where the boy eventually died.
Right after the judge found the teenager guilty of DUI and reckless driving last Nov. 2, Sanders said that he was disappointed with the decision of the jury to acquit Blas on vehicular homicide, but added that he respected the decision of the jurors.
Before yesterday’s sentencing, Sanders and CNMI chief prosecutor David Hutton asserted that the applicable penalty for DUI, when the defendant’s operation of the vehicle resulted in the death of another, is “a fine of not less than $1,000 [or imprisonment of] not more than five years, or by both fine and imprisonment.”
