Manslaughter to Murder

Over the last few days I read two articles on Mysa.com, one was

A decade later, probation still stings for officer's widow

and the other

Drunk driving can be murder

Both by 

By Craig Kapitan, Staff Writer at the Express news/ Mysa.com

 Both of which involved a drunk driver killing someone. One was the case of Mrs. France Ford who killed Mr. Lawrence Belcher in 2010. She was charged with murder for killing Mr. Belcher while driving drunk, most would say that the murder charge is excessive but the reality is that what Mr. Ford did, she did knowingly.  Getting behind the wheel of her car and deciding to place herself and others in imminent danger. She knew from previous arrest that what she was doing was deadly. Having been arrested twice before she must have attended alcohol awareness classes and may have even heard firsthand account of how deadly drunk driving can be if she attend a Victim impact panel. With all the information and knowledge she gained for her past experiences she still decided to drink and drive and in doing so killed Mr. Belcher. There was no reason for her to get into a car after she had been drinking.

In the other case a drunk driver (Simon Cordova) fell asleep at the wheel and struck Sgt Paul Rangel personal car which lead to his death a few hours later. Cordova was tried back in 2002 and was given probation. What I see is wrong with that is that he knew that he was drunk and that he should not been driving and admitted as much by saying that he tried to sleep it off. This was not an accident or mistake which intoxication manslaughter states as a reason for the death. Although he was intoxicated he knew what he was doing because of his initial effort to avoid the action.

 Take a look at what the Texas penal code says in regards to intoxication manslaughter.

Sec. 49.08.  INTOXICATION MANSLAUGHTER.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person:

(1)  Operates a motor vehicle in a public place, operates an aircraft, a watercraft, or an amusement ride, or assembles a mobile amusement ride;  and

(2)  Is intoxicated and by reason of that intoxication causes the death of another by accident or mistake.

The Definition of       

•   Accident is: An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
•   Mistake  is: An action or judgment that is misguided or wrong:

Neither of these drunk drivers accidentally or mistakenly caused the death of there victims by reason of their intoxication, they both made conscious decisions to drive.  

  

Everyone by now knows that drinking and driving shouldn't be done. There are ads that run on TV, radio and on the web warning of its dangers, along with the alcoholic beverage industry that encourages its consumers to act with responsibility (at least in their ads.) Therefore the words of that statute for intoxication manslaughter would only apply if a person had never heard that it is not only dangerous but deadly to drive while intoxicated. And that same person had never been intoxicated before the incident that caused the death of someone. So anyone choosing to commit the act of driving while intoxicated and by choosing to commit that act causes the death of someone would not fit this definition.  It would not apply to a person who had ever been charged with DWI or even public intoxication or gotten an M.I.P. Due to the fact that most of those that are charged and/or convicted with those offences are often required to attend an alcohol awareness class and/or a victim impact panel.  Anyone with a previous DWI arrest would knowingly commit this crime and therefore know firsthand how deadly this act is and would NOT have done by reason of  intoxication so by accident or mistake but by knowingly acting recklessly. This would change the degree of the crime from Manslaughter to Murder.  

Those are my thoughts,
What do you think?


Edward

John's Story

We often hear about tragic crashes involving a drunk driver and we only get a glimpse of the true effect it has on the victims and their families. Life for them is changed in a matter of minutes with the reverberations lasting a lifetime. The following is glimpse into the life of a father and husband who had his life forever changed by a drunk driver.
This is John’s Story:    

My Story, how a drunk driver changed my life

Life can change instantly
Yes, that’s right!, your life can change instantly. Sometimes it’s for the better, and as in this instance for the worse!
The date was April 24, 2009. I was working as a consultant overseas for a major oil company. After years of struggling to make a living, I was finally content with my career. I was only working 6 months out of the year, and making a decent living, with plenty of free time for my family.
We had just taken a vacation for a week in Paris, and my wife Barbara, and my kids, Adriana and Jackson had the time of their lives! Little did I know, it really was the time of their lives, and that this would be the last vacation we would ever take together. My daughter and son were very happy loving children. They could be a handful, just as any child can be, but they were the light of my life. My wife Barbara, was a very independent hard working woman, who had climbed the corporate ladder from minimum wage to close to a six figure salary in her career, and did so without a degree, although she was working on that and was almost finished with her degree when she passed away.
With a 6 hour time difference from where I worked to where I lived, it was early morning when I got the call… The call you never want to receive. It was a friend of mine who worked for the police department in the town I lived in. There had been an accident he said, and your wife passed away.. I was floored! What about my kids I asked?! They’ve been airlifted to the hospital in Houston, and we’re unresponsive. I had to get home! I had to take care of my kids!
Unfortunately, as i sat waiting for my travel plans to be drawn up, i received another call… It was my brother… My son Jackson had passed away on the operating table. All i had left was my precious daughter! I sent out a prayer request on Facebook, and via email to everyone I knew! I could feel parts of my soul dying as i typed the words! I hope no one ever experiences that feeling!
Say what you want about big oil companies, just don’t say it to me! ExxonMobil did everything short of chartering a jet to get me home quickly! On top of that, one of their employees, and my co-worker Mitch Morris, accompanied me all the way home, and took care of me on the trip! He then turned around, and flew back to Africa!…. Over 40 hrs in transit! So, once we got home, and he handed me off to my brother, I asked to go to the hospital to see my daughter. My brother looked me in the eye, and said ” it’s too late… She died while you were on your way home”. The emptyness in my soul at that moment was complete! My life before this moment was gone forever… Like having the ground disappear beneath you and falling into a bottomless pit they call Hell! For those of you who say Hell doesnt exist, trust me it does, and it can manifest itself on this earth!

The next couple of days are a blur to me, as they had me sedated, or tanked up on Xanax. My family was very social and outgoing, so this affected the entire community where I live. We ended up having two funeral services… One public, and one private. I don’t really remember speaking at the funeral, but I was told that I did. I buried my entire family on April 30,2009. The next day was my birthday… Needless to say, I don’t celebrate my birthday anymore… It’s just the day after I buried my family now! July 4th isn’t the same, Halloween isn’t the same, thanksgiving isn’t the same… And Christmas?… I can’t even explain how hard that is!
The man who killed my family was found to be 5 times over the legal limit, and was a multiple repeat offender in regards to DWI. Every time they let this guy out, he did the same thing! He would steal a car, go on a crime spree, and travel across the country. On one hand, I’m so angry that he died! I wasn’t able to avenge their deaths! On the other hand, I know now, that God did this for a reason, for had he lived, I would have killed him, and more importantly, anyone who would have stood in my way! So his dying in the crash actually saved other innocent lives… Particularly those who were in law enforcement who would have been doing their job to protect him.
So, now my family is gone! My life forever changed! All because of a drunk driver. How has it changed? That is an entirely different post, as it just goes on and on.
I hope those of you who have read this reflect on your own lives. I hope it changes something in your life for the better! I hope none of you drink and drive ever again! You could end up a statistic, or you could cause someone like my family or myself to be a statistic! And trust me, you don’t want that!

DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!

John Boggan
www.johnboggan.net
www.empowernetwork.com/johnboggan

I wish.

The other day I had a chance to do a Victim impact panel which is basically a meeting that DWI offenders have to attend. There they hear firsthand accounts for DWI victims and/or their families about the effect that another person's choice to drink and drive had on them. There were three of us speaking that night and After sharing our stories we headed for the door one of the guys attending the meeting came up to me. He asked if I had been on TV the week before and if I was the one that was pushing for the alcohol restriction for DWI offenders. I said yes and waited to hear what he was going to say. Just a few minutes before he had shared that this was his third DWI and was facing some serious repercussions for it. So in those few seconds before he spoke I was preparing my defense for the backlash that was about to come. Then these word came from him " I think that's a good idea, I would support that." He went on to tell me that he wished that something like that had been done long ago, me too, I said. And as we walked out of the court house he mentioned how he liked the part that if someone was to buy or gave someone a beer that was on restriction, that that person would be restricted from buying beer too. He went on to say “If someone(on restriction) came up to me and asked If I could get them a 12 pack or something, I’d tell them to go f—k themselves” he said “I wouldn't take a chance to mess up just cause they messed up”   after a few more words we parted, and as I prayed that my truck would start, the thought came to me that maybe he was wishing that someone had done something like the alcohol restriction when he was younger.That maybe his first DWI would have been his last and he wouldn't be in the situation he's in, I wish that it  had been done along time ago too and I'm sure there are lots of others that do too. I was surprised by what he said and  encouraged to keep pushing this forward. I really feel that this is a good Idea and that it would be an effective way to encourage people to take more personal responsibility when they decide to drink. So even though, right now it seems that this effort won’t have a chance at even becoming part of a bill for the legislature to consider this session, I will keep pushing. I will push to get the word out and grow the support that is needed to make this idea a reality. I've got the website to help do that and I’m setting up an “At The Counter” Facebook page that I hope to launch very soon, we’ll see how that goes. Well that all for now, I’ll share more with you later.   

Matthew's Dad

Edward