Drink-driver jailed for LIFE in the U.S. after clocking up his ninth offence



A 52-year-old man has become the first motorist to be jailed for life for drink-driving.



Bobby Stovall was told he will die in prison after receiving his ninth drink-driving conviction.



Prosecutors in Texas had demanded a harsh punishment as they feared the jobless builder would eventually kill someone if he were ever allowed to drive again.

‘This is someone who very deliberately has refused to make changes and continued to get drunk and get in a car – and before he kills someone, we decided to put him away,’ said Williamson County district attorney John Bradley.

Jailed for life: Unemployed construction worker and repeat offender Bobby Stovall has been told he will die in prison

Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield agreed and locked Stovall up for life.



Although some drink- drivers have been jailed for life for causing deaths, legal experts say this is the first time in the world that a motorist has been given the sentence for the basic offence.



Stovall had been facing up to five years in jail after being arrested in July 2009 when he crashed his truck into another vehicle. Witnesses said he had been weaving in and out of traffic before hitting another vehicle and injuring his female passengers in Round Rock, Texas.

Stovall was found to be four times over the drink drive limit.

He initially failed a roadside test and later a blood alcohol test after being arrested.

A dashcam video from the arresting officer's police car caught Stovall losing his balance during the roadside sobriety test as he attempted to walk in a straight line.

Stovall was convicted by a jury, and after the judge heard it was his ninth conviction decided to impose the tough sentence.

Prosecutors said Stovall had failed to learn his lesson from his previous convictions.

'He basically walked through the penal code for the past twenty years without any regard for safety or society,' said Bradley.

'In every single one of his cases he had an opportunity to change.

'I think that the ninth time you get caught and punished for drink driving you would have found some way of not getting in that car.' In the UK, dr ink dr iver s are sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for a first offence. Causing death by drink driving carries a maximum sentence of ten years.



The life sentence was condemned as being too harsh by one lawyer involved in drink drive cases.

'This guy has a disease, he is an alcoholic and this isn't the kind of situation where he's acting with malice to hurt people,' said lawyer Lawrence Taylor who is author of 'Drunk Driving Defence.'

Taylor said Stovall should have been given a spell in rehab rather than "ending his life."

'You're essentially doing just that, ending this man's life, at the expense of taxpayers,' he said.

But prosecutors in Williamson County are proud of their Texas style justice.

'It's a big dodge to focus on the disease and not the crime,' said Bradley. 'It's a huge social excuse for dangerous conduct.

'If this guy was using a shotgun to shoot lights randomly around his neighbourhood I doubt we'd be getting criticized for the sentencing.

'In this case he's simply using his truck as his weapon.'