Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Blog
Attorney J. Bradley Smith answering the question: “Are breath test results always accurate?”
In an odd drunk driving case out of Charlotte, a judge in Mecklenburg County recently accepted a plea deal for a driver only several hours after another judge rejected the identical deal.
The plea deal involved a sad case where a passenger was killed in the car driven by Bairon Sandoval. The accident took place last February and Sandoval was initially charged with felony death by vehicle, DWI and lacking a valid driver’s license. His criminal defense attorney was able to reach a deal with prosecutors who agreed to reduce the charge to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for Sandoval serving between 10 and 20 months behind bars.
Sandoval had admitted that he and several friends had spent the evening drinking in a bar prior to driving home with a friend, 20-year-old Tatiana Rivera. Rivera was killed and two other innocent victims were injured in the accident that occurred after Sandoval ran into a tree near the intersection of Tyvola and Old Pineville Roads. Police officers tested Sandoval’s blood and determined his BAC was 0.10 percent, slightly higher than the state’s 0.08 percent legal limit.
Given that the plea deal had been reached between the prosecutor and Sandoval’s attorney, all that remained was to have a judge sign off on the deal, something that is typically only seen as a formality. Such deals are commonplace and save both sides significant time and money, reducing the risks that are inherent in a criminal trial. Despite the deal already being in place, one judge initially disagreed with the plea arrangement, saying that he was not willing to sign off on such a light sentence given that Sandoval’s drunk driving had directly led to another person’s death.
The new tools, which are swab-testing kits, will be used primarily during DUI checkpoints and in jails to test those who have already been arrested. The department intends to pair the devices with breathalyzers and subject drivers at checkpoints to both a breath test and mouth swab to detect the presence of drugs. The test has been designed to screen for the presence of methamphetamine, cocaine, benzodiazepine, methadone and THC, a component of marijuana.