New sentence ordered in deadly W.Va. DUI crash

 A repeat drunken driver must be resentenced for leaving the scene of a DUI crash that killed five people and injured seven more, according to a state Supreme Court ruling that otherwise rejects his appeal.

The unanimous court ruled Thursday that Brian Stone should have received one prison term for leaving the scene of an accident that caused an injury or death, not 12 consecutive sentences for that offense.

Setting legal precedent, the ruling said that a driver who leaves the scene breaks the law “only once regardless of the number of injuries or deaths resulting from the accident.”

The opinion written by Justice Tom McHugh also makes clear that police can obtain a search warrant to test an uncooperative suspect’s blood-alcohol content following an arrest. Stone’s defense had cited a 2002 state Supreme Court ruling on the topic in a bid to toss the blood alcohol testing in his case. Thursday’s opinion overrules that earlier decision.

Stone was sentenced in 2008 to 41 years after a jury found that he was drunk when he drove his truck into the rear of another vehicle on Interstate 68 near Cheat Lake in Morgantown. The collision pushed that car across the median and into the path of a sport utility vehicle.

The July 2007 crash killed Baltimore resident Courtney Evans, 30, and his 12-year-old son, Sawyer, as well as 52-year-old Donnell Perry and that man’s daughters, Jentil, 15, and Jacquesha, 13.

The Perrys were in the SUV and had recently moved to Clarksburg from Middletown, Conn. Left injured were Evans’ wife and another son, and Perry’s wife and four other children in the SUV.

The jury convicted Stone of 25 offenses, including the dozen counts of leaving the scene of an accident addressed by the ruling. A deputy sheriff spotted Stone hitchhiking about a half-mile from the crash scene, where his truck was found with its engine still running.

Stone, then 33, blamed a blown tire for the deadly wreck during his trial and sentencing. In rejecting Stone’s appeal of the test evidence, the justices noted that it his blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit several hours after the crash and that he had failed three field sobriety tests at the scene before his arrest.

Stone’s prior criminal record included at least six DUI arrests in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and three convictions. After the 2007 crash, he was charged with a repeat offense of driving on a license suspended or revoked for DUI. That charge was separated from the others before trial so the jury would not learn of his record. He later pleaded guilty to that remaining count.

West Virginia revoked Stone’s license in 2004 after his second DUI conviction there, but he managed to get a Pennsylvania driver’s license before the revocation. That state’s attorney general’s office said Stone lied on his 2003 application, claiming he had never been arrested or cited for a violation that carries a penalty of license suspension or revocation.