Published: July 18, 2008 05:02 pm      

15 DWIs lands Campbell man in prison

GREENVILLE — A Hunt County man has been sentenced to prison, after pleading guilty to his 15th charge for driving while intoxicated (DWI).

Ronnie Victor Beliew, 60, of Campbell, was sentenced to 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division — the maximum punishment — on a charge of felony DWI during a hearing Thursday in the 354th District Court.

Typically, a charge of driving while intoxicated is filed as a felony offense, rather than a misdemeanor, when the individual has had two or more prior DWI convictions. The third degree felony carries a maximum punishment upon conviction of from two to 10 years in prison.

But Beliew’s potential sentence was bumped up to that of a second degree felony — two to 20 years — due to his long list of prior DWI convictions.

A presentence investigation ordered by the court revealed Beliew had 13 prior DWI convictions on his record, including four felony convictions and at least one prison sentence, in Hunt and Dallas counties, before he was stopped by a Commerce Police Department officer on the evening of April 20.

Beliew took a breathalyzer test on the scene which registered a blood-alcohol level of .236, almost three times the legal limit for intoxication in Texas of .08.

Beliew later admitted to have been drinking 16-ounce beers between when he woke up around 8 a.m. that day and about an hour before being arrested.