Earlier this month, Orvel Wayne Speck was given the maximum sentence of 60 years in prison for driving drunk and killing three Houston residents.  Speck received 20 years for each count of intoxication manslaughter with each sentence to be served consecutively.  46-year old Speck, who has AIDS, will be 106 if he serves all 60 years.  He will not receive parole until he is 76.

Speck addressed the jury before they were sent off to make their decision and stated, “It’s destroyed my life.  I can’t proclaim my sorrow enough….I’m not a monster.  I didn’t intentionally kill anybody”.  Speck testified that he did not remember anything between having drinks at a bar in Galveston and waking up in the hospital.

If you or someone you know has been charged with driving under the influence, contact the Houston drunk driving defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

In 2009, Texas had 1,269 deaths in alcohol-related driving accidents.  Now, lawmakers are considering making stricter driving while intoxicated laws including sobriety checkpoints and mandatory blood tests.

Chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, Senator John Whitmire of Houston aruges, “We need a consistent DWI policy across the state of Texas”.  Furthermore, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo testified for possible  changes to the state’s DWI laws stating, “If we can’t intervene in people’s lives, we can’t change their behavior.  It has to start with the first arrest”.

Other topics discussed at the hearing included repealing a surcharge that fines driver’s convicted of driving drunk thousands of dollars and making new treatment options available to first time offenders.

If you or someone you know has been charged with a DUI or DWI, contact the Houston drunk driving defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

Houston mayor Annise Parker stopped the Houston police’s training to become certified phlebotomists.

Officers started training to draw blood in February after federal grant money was approved for the project in October .  The idea was that instead of taking suspects to nurses or hospitals to draw blood, police officers could do it in the police department’s downtown intoxilizer room where drunk drivers are booked.

Officers began their training drawing blood from state prison inmates.  Inmates that approved being part of their training were lined up for police officers to practice finding the veins to draw blood.  This testing was kept private with the understanding that the public most likely wouldn’t like the idea of using prison inmates as guinea pigs.  Officials believe that the prison testing did not have anything to do with Parker’s decision to halt the training.

A new proposal is now being discussed that would permit Houston firefighters and paramedics to perform blood draws.

If you or someone you know has been charged with a DUI, contact the Houston drunk driving defense lawyers of Johnson, Johnson & Baer at 713-222-0400 to learn more about your rights.

Longhorns’ running back Vondrell McGee will be suspended for the season opener after being arrested for driving while intoxicated.

According to officials with the Austin Police Department, the 21 year-old National Football League star was arrested in the city shortly after 3:00 a.m. Sunday after an officer observed the player driving with his lights off. A preliminary police report contends that officers administered a Breathalyzer test to McGee, whose blood alcohol content registered .12 percent. The legal limit in Texas is .08 percent.

Longhorns’ head coach Mack Brown said McGee will sit out “at least” the first game of this season.

If you or someone you love is facing a DUI or DWI charge, an experienced lawyer may be your best chance of beating the charge. Please contact a Houston DWI Lawyer of Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P.C., by calling 713-222-0400 today.

The reputed leader of a multimillion dollar drug dealing operation that distributed cocaine and marijuana was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday.

Authorities say 58 year-old Miguel Zamora was sentenced Monday in federal court in Houston to life in prison, for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine and more than 1000 kilograms of marijuana. He was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for laundering money connected to the illicit operation.

Zamora’s stepdughter, 33 year-old Olivia del Carmen Rodriguez, was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for her role in the money laundering.

Zamora is a Mexican national who had been deported from the United States in 2004 after serving five years in prison for a prior federal drug offense. Rodriquez is a naturalized United States citizen from El Salvador.

If you are facing charges for a serious crime and are seeking legal counsel, please contact a Houston criminal attorney of Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P.C., by calling 713-222-0400 today.

A woman in Houston will face criminal charges after she drove an SUV into a post office, injuring five people.

According to officials with the Houston Police Department, the accident occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m. at a post office in the 3000 block of W. Fuqua near Almeda. Police say tire tracks could be seen heading from the parking lot, across the sidewalk, through the lawn, and into the building. Authorities believe the vehicle jumped the curb, collided with a group of newspaper dispensers, and crashed through a large window to the right of the front entrance.

“We was standing in line, and we just heard a big ‘boosh!’ And we all just tried to get to where we could get to,” witness Randy Johnson said.

Two office workers and three customers were injured in the crash. Two victims were transported to Ben Taub Hospital for treatment. The other three were treated at the scene.

The 64 year-old female driver of the SUV was not injured in the crash, police say. Police continue to investigate the cause of the crash, but say the woman will face serious criminal charges and fines.

If you are facing criminal charges in the city of Houston, please contact a Houston criminal attorney of Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P.C., by calling 713-222-0400 today.

A Houston driver with two children in the car was involved in a serious two-car accident that injured the children so seriously that they required emergency air medical evacuation.

While it was unclear which driver was at fault in the two-car accident on Highway 288 and Oak Drive, the driver with the children in the vehicle was cited for driving while intoxicated, a serious offense that could also come with a charge of child endangerment.

If you or someone you love is facing a DUI or DWI charge, an experienced lawyer may be your best chance of beating the charge. Please contact the Houston DWI attorneys of Johnson, Johnson & Baer, P.C., by calling 713-222-0400 today.