A Houston man is staring down a half-century in the Texas prison system after a Montgomery County jury decided his latest drunk driving arrest was one too many. Prosecutors say 34-year-old Eugenio Les Zavala was convicted of driving while intoxicated for the third time or more, and jurors treated his fifth DWI as part of a long-running pattern.
Deputies Say The Stop Turned Ugly Fast
According to Woodlands Online, which published the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office account, sheriff's deputies pulled Zavala over, found him alone in the vehicle and say things escalated quickly. He allegedly became argumentative, refused to get out of the car and physically resisted officers.
Prosecutors said Zavala refused standardized field sobriety testing and would not provide a breath or blood sample. A deputy eventually secured a search warrant for a blood draw, and the result came back at 0.150 BAC, nearly twice the legal limit. The two-day trial ran from last Monday into Tuesday in the 221st District Court.
Why The Sentence Went So High
Texas law ramps up DWI penalties in a hurry, and prior felonies only crank the stakes higher. The state penal code says a DWI becomes a third-degree felony when a defendant has two prior intoxication-related convictions, and the punishment statute allows a range of 25 years to life when repeat-felony status applies, according to the Texas Legislature.
That tough approach lines up with Montgomery County's own public-safety messaging. The county’s No Refusal program says DWI remains the most frequently committed crime there and describes a system set up to get blood evidence quickly when suspected impaired drivers refuse testing. District Attorney Michael Holley told ABC13 that when someone keeps choosing to endanger others on the road, his office has to act before another family pays the price.
