A Texas man has been sentenced to life in prison after his ninth conviction for driving while intoxicated.
Christopher Faran Stanford, 50, pleaded guilty to the felony charge and was handed a lifetime jail sentence Tuesday by a Parker County jury, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
The repeat offender had opted for a jury to determine his punishment. Jurors decided the free ride was over for Stanford based on his shameful history of multiple DUI arrests between 2003 and 2022.
The latest incident occurred in August, when police say Stanford ran a red light at an intersection in his Lincoln MKC and rear-ended a Kia Sorrento carrying a man, his wife and their teenage daughter.
The driver of the Kia told police that after the crash, Stanford told him: “I have to go. I’m going to get in trouble.”
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He then jumped over a barbed-wire fence and ran. Authorities apprehended the suspect in a field 30 minutes after he fled the scene.
Parker County District Attorney Jeff Swain said Stanford was a menace to public safety who deserved to be locked up to prevent more accidents.
“Since Mr. Stanford had four previous prison sentences for felony DWI offenses, he was treated as a habitual offender,” Swain said, according to the Star-Telegram.
“His record showed that he was going to continue endangering communities throughout the [Dallas-Fort Worth] Metroplex unless he was locked up,” the prosecutor said. “This was his first DWI in Parker County, but he had other convictions in Tarrant, Dallas, Rockwall and Johnson Counties, so he has been a menace on the roadways throughout the DFW area.”
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At trial, the defendant told jurors he did not believe he had a problem with alcohol but was merely “very unlucky.”
Assistant District Attorney Abby Placke said Stanford also showed no remorse after causing the accident.
“The video that we admitted into evidence showed Mr. Stanford being belligerent and having difficulty standing without help,” Placke said. “At one point, he even tried to headbutt the Lifecare EMT that was trying to treat him.
“He was so drunk and obnoxious that the officers were unable to administer the field sobriety tests they normally perform. But it was clear that he was drunk, so he was arrested.”
A test administered after the arrest showed Stanford’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.267 — more than three times the legal limit in Texas of 0.08.
Assistant District Attorney Skyler Schoolfield said the defendant’s repeat offenses showed a cavalier attitude about public safety.
“I thought his testimony showed a lack of personal insight that was manifested in his lack of concern for others on our roads,” Schoolfield said, according to the Star-Telegram.
“In our case, he was not just intoxicated, he was flat-out drunk. With that level of intoxication and his high speed at the time of the accident, we really are lucky that the husband, wife, and teenage daughter in the other car only suffered minor injuries. This could have been much worse.”
The stiff punishment meted out in Texas contrasts sharply with the clown show that is Democrat-run New York, where half of Manhattan’s drunken driving cases were dismissed last year thanks to the liberal cesspool’s soft-on-crime policies.
“Drunk drivers are getting a free ride in New York City.”
“Of the 262 drunk-driving cases handled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office in 2022, 128 – or 49%—were dismissed.” https://t.co/hJbMti9a8i
— Congressman Troy E. Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) April 3, 2023
Clueless politicians should realize that keeping the citizenry safe must be their top priority as public servants. After all, the life they save could be their own.
