A senior judge in Pasco County sentenced Charlton Oliver Jr. to 15 years in prison for the DUI manslaughter of Shelly Bingham this week.

Fathers of three deceased young people were allowed to speak at the sentencing hearing.

Twenty-three-year-old Christian Ward was a passenger in Oliver’s car in 1994 when it flipped off the road while going 140 mph. Ward suffered brain damage and lived in a Bradenton nursing home until he died 11 years later.

Oliver went to trial in 1996 for that accident, where a jury acquitted him of serious personal injury while driving under the influence, a felony, but convicted him of culpable negligence, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to a year of probation and a $1,000 fine.

In 2003, Oliver struck an 18-year-old jogger in Dade City. Levi Singletary later died but authorities determined that Oliver was not at fault. Singletary’s father and Ward’s father were allowed to address the court at sentencing but were not allowed to mention their sons or the manner in which died.

Five months after Singletary’s death, Oliver ran off the road and killed his date, 33-year-old Bingham, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat. A test showed Oliver’s blood-alcohol content at the time of the last incident was 0.203, more than twice the level at which a driver is presumed impaired by Florida state law. He was convicted of DUI manslaughter earlier this spring.

Oliver’s defense attorney argued that Bingham’s death was caused by an ER doctor’s negligence and not by Oliver’s driving. He also argued that it was a heart condition and not his intoxication that caused Oliver to pass out behind the wheel. Neither the jury nor the judge were convinced by those arguments.

The judge called the defense attorney’s medical information “quite interesting” but ultimately discounted it. Calling Oliver “drunker than a hoot owl,” the judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison, the maximum allowed for the second-degree felony, and revoked his driver’s license “forevermore.”

Oliver’s driving record also had two DUI convictions, one conviction for careless driving and four for speeding.

DUI, Felonies

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.