PREVIOUSLY: Jury Convicts McKinleyville Man of Felony DUI for Running Into Teen on Central Avenue Last Year

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A McKinleyville man was sentenced today to five years of supervised probation and 270 days in jail for running over an 11-year-old bicyclist while driving very drunk on Central Avenue.



Visiting Judge Graham Cribbs imposed the sentence on 63-year-old David Ervin Gunderson, convicted by a jury of felony drunken driving and inflicting great bodily injury on a child. Gunderson was driving with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit when his vehicle struck the boy on Sept. 30, 2017.

Gunderson could have been sentenced to seven years in state prison. But the judge noted that at age 63, Gunderson had no prior criminal record. He sentenced him to a five-year prison term but suspended it. Although he must serve 270 days in Humboldt County Correctional Facility, he doesn’t have to turn himself in until July 7.

Deputy District Attorney Steven Steward, who prosecuted Gunderson at trial, had asked the judge to jail him today.

Defense attorney Ken Bareilles noted that inmates sentenced to 180 days or less are eligible to serve their sentence on SWAP, or the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program. He wanted to know whether Gunderson would be eligible for SWAP once he got down to 180 days.

“No,” Cribbs said. “He’s being imprisoned in the Humboldt County Jail.”

It was left undecided as to how much credit for time served Gunderson will receive while in jail. Steward said that considering the crime is a violent felony it should be 5 percent. Bareilles thought it should be 50 percent, meaning he would serve half the time imposed.

Cribbs declined to rule on that, saying credits would be given according to the law.