Law raises DWI stakes in SE Texas

April Bertrand and her son Caleb Bertrand hold a photo of Alexandria Bertrand after an organ donors' memorial service at Christus St. Elizabeth on Friday. Alexandria donated organs after she was killed in a recent car accident. Photo taken May 30, 2014 Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter less April Bertrand and her son Caleb Bertrand hold a photo of Alexandria Bertrand after an organ donors' memorial service at Christus St. Elizabeth on Friday. Alexandria donated organs after she was killed in a ... more Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Law raises DWI stakes in SE Texas 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

When Justin Tyrone Young failed to yield as he turned onto 11th Street on Jan. 9 and slammed his pickup truck against Alexis Neal's Chevrolet Impala, prosecutors say, he did more than kill her.

He committed murder.

A grand jury reindicted Young, 35, on a murder charge last month after an initial intoxication manslaughter indictment in May in connection with the death of the 22-year-old Buna woman.

Young is the first person in Jefferson County to have an intoxication manslaughter charge upgraded to murder, District Attorney Cory Crenshaw said.

Under the felony murder rule, a manslaughter charge can be elevated if it occurs in the course of committing another felony.

"One of the ways (the felony murder rule can be applied) is if someone causes a death in the course of committing another felony offense and commits acts clearly dangerous to human life, in this case driving while intoxicated," Crenshaw said.

The law dismisses the need for intent, which draws the line between murder and manslaughter, when a death occurs during or right after a suspect commits a felony.

The law attracts heated discussion and some jurisdictions have abolished it. Several others continue to limit it by enumerating the crimes it can be associated with.

Burglary, kidnapping, rape and robbery are examples of felonies that normally invoke the rule.

Melissa Hamilton, visiting criminal law scholar at the University of Houston Law Center, said the debate stems from the different philosophies of the criminal justice system in the U.S.

The discussion is similar to that about the death penalty, she said.

"It's a debate on culpability and degrees of punishment," Hamilton said.

Conservative leaders tend to strive for the highest degree of punishment available while less conservative ones tend to want to evaluate the particulars of each case.

In Young's case, he allegedly killed Neal while he committed the felony of driving while intoxicated, Crenshaw said.

Crenshaw said he couldn't discuss the details of Young's case because it has not gone to trial, but Young's criminal history shows two previous misdemeanor DWI convictions, from 2003 and 2012.

A third DWI is considered a felony.

Young could face punishment ranging from 15 years to 99 years or life in prison if convicted.

Beaumont defense attorney James Makin said that Young's case doesn't surprise him because "our society is addressing this drinking and driving issue head on."

The problem is that, when intent is out of the equation, reckless individuals are thrown in the same bag as criminals.

"Sometimes it's very nice people, living honorable lives who make a very bad decision," Makin said.

Hamilton said the felony murder rule could backfire by disregarding premeditation.

"If we're prosecuting people who didn't have the intent to kill the same way we prosecute people who did, we might be encouraging recklessness," Hamilton said.

But it can also be useful when prosecutors are trying, for example, to take repeat offenders off the streets, she said.

"They don't have to prove that additional intent, so it's easier (to get a conviction)," she said.

Young's indictment came about a month after an Orange County jury convicted and sentenced Kelvin Lee Roy, 32, to 75 years in prison for murder in connection with the February death of Vidor teenager Alexandria Bertrand.

Roy tested positive for PCP, marijuana and alcohol when he crashed his car with the minivan in which Bertrand was a passenger. Orange County authorities charged him with murder instead of intoxication manslaughter.

Detectives made the decision based on Roy's girlfriend's account that he purposefully caused the wreck in an attempt to kill her and himself, according to trial testimony.

Roy's case is an example of transferred intent. When a person intends to kill someone and another person dies as a consequence, the intent can be transferred, according to Texas law.

"This was an extremely rare set of circumstances," said Orange County District Attorney John Kimbrough.

Prosecutors' decision to charge an intoxicated driver with murder is risky, Kimbrough said, because they have to prove intent.

"Of course it can be (difficult to prove)," Kimbrough said. "You can't get into someone's head. We were fortunate because his girlfriend survived."

Five days before Roy killed Bertrand in Vidor, Crystal Boyett was charged with three counts of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of Courtney Sterling, 15, and her pregnant sister Connely Burns, along with the unborn baby boy after a fatal car wreck in Lumberton.

Each manslaughter charge carries a 20-year maximum sentence, which she would likely serve consecutively if convicted.

Since that Feb. 3 fatal crash, members of the community have taken to social media to question why Boyett wasn't charged with murder and to show their disappointment in her charge.

"How anyone who killed three people and gravely injured another could not be charged with murder is beyond me," a commenter wrote. "She should not get 20 years but life."

Police found the prescription drug Xanax in the Camaro driven by Boyett after the fatal accident, but Hardin County District Attorney David Sheffield said the toxicology report shows no evidence that Boyett was intoxicated when her car collided with the SUV carrying the sisters and their mother.

She was indicted on the manslaughter charges in August.

The prosecution wouldn't be able to meet the requirements in court for a murder charge in Boyett's case, Sheffield said in August.

"She would beat the case and walk away with nothing," he said.

The three cases are different, which is why the felony murder rule can be applied only on a case-to-case basis, Crenshaw said.

"These are fact-specific cases," Crenshaw said. "We're not going to have any general policy that's going to automatically elevate cases to murder."

Because the rule's boundaries are blurry and applied on a case-by-case basis, it could have discriminatory effects if used to target certain racial or socioeconomic groups, Hamilton said.

On the other hand, she said, the felony murder rule can send a positive message to the community against drunken driving because possible offenders could get life in prison.

Crenshaw said the District Attorney's Office is currently testing a new program that allows officers to request search warrants when they have probable cause to believe drivers who refuse to take the breath test are impaired.

The no-refusal program should be implemented in the next few weeks, he said.

The motivation comes from the high success rate police enforcement around the state sees during no-refusal weekends, Crenshaw said.

"It's a move to try to make Jefferson County safer from intoxicated drivers," Crenshaw said.

MLibardi@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/ManuellaLibardi