A 55-year-old Navasota man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison, after pleading guilty to fleeing the scene of a 2014 traffic crash in Bryan he caused while he was intoxicated.
According to the victim, Assistant Brazos County District Attorney Clay Kimbrough says Ruben Maldonado was travelling in excess of 100 miles an hour. He made his way to Highway 6 and headed south, towards Navasota. The highway patrol trooper caught up with him on Highway 6 and immediately knew that he was intoxicated.
And although his blood alcohol tested more than twice the legal limit, Kimbrough tells Navasota News he is thankful that no one was injured in the crash.
This was Maldonado’s 4th DWI, and Kimbrough explains that here in Texas, your first DWI is only a Class B Misdemeanor. The second DWI is a Class A Misdemeanor, which is up to a year in county jail. Then the third one becomes a felony, which is a minimum two years, up to 10 years in prison with the possibility of probation.
Kimbrough says this will be Maldonado’s third time behind bars. The first was for his 3rd DWI back in 2000. Then in 2008 he was sentenced to prison for large amounts of narcotics out of Walker County and Bowie County, so he is a repeat offender and a DWI offender, which Kimbrough tells Navasota News, are not factors looked favorably upon so far as parole is concerned, in his experience.
Nonetheless, Kimbrough adds, according to the plea agreement, Maldonado will become eligible for parole in eight years and nine months, after serving 25 percent of his 35 year sentence.