Texas Man Gets Life in Prison for 10th DWI
BOBBY GENE MARTIN ALSO THREATENED TO KILL AN OFFICER AND HIS FAMILY
By Arden Dier, Newser Staff
newser.com
Posted Feb 13, 2015 8:34 AM CST
(NEWSER) – A Texas man was sentenced to two life sentences Wednesday for drunk driving. If that seems harsh, consider that Bobby Gene Martin, 64, racked up 10 DWI charges between 1981 and 2014, reports the Montgomery County Police Reporter. In the latest incident, Martin crashed his mom's pickup truck on Aug. 2, then reportedly asked a wrecker driver for a ride home so he wouldn't get "another DWI." The driver refused, and responding officers found Martin in water up to his waist in a nearby drainage ditch, the Courier reports. His blood alcohol level was 0.217. Martin then threatened to "kill not only the deputy that arrested him, but also his wife, his children, his mom," Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kyle Crowl said.
Once at the local jail, Martin kept up the death threats, hurling them, along with racial slurs, at the jailer, per Crowl. The jury took one hour to convict Martin and spent three hours deliberating his sentence after learning of his earlier crimes. As a habitual offender, he faced 25 years to life. After notching his eighth drunk-driving conviction in 1999, Martin was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the Houston Chronicle reports. After being released, he was jailed once again for a year after a 2009 DWI arrest. "It is amazing he hasn't killed anyone yet," said Crowl, who painted this metaphor for the jury: The latest charges were the "icing on a cake that [Martin] had been baking his whole life." Martin's life sentences will be served concurrently; he'll be eligible for parole at age 80. (A man with nine drunk-driving convictions blamed ... fish.) |
