State vs. Nowicki
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On March 21, 2019, David Scott Nowicki was discovered unconscious in a vehicle in a ditch off Interstate 70 in Saline County, Missouri. After conducting field sobriety tests, Sergeant Dunfee concluded that Nowicki was impaired and arrested him. Nowicki was later transported to the Saline County jail, where he admitted he had been driving the vehicle but denied using alcohol or drugs in the last 72 hours. A jury trial was scheduled to determine whether Nowicki was guilty of driving while intoxicated. Before the trial, the circuit court was required to determine whether, if the jury found Nowicki guilty, he would be subject to an enhanced sentence due to prior convictions that qualified as intoxication-related traffic offenses (IRTOs). The state argued that Nowicki had four prior convictions that each qualified as an IRTO. As a result, the state contended Nowicki should be sentenced as a chronic offender. The jury found Nowicki guilty and the circuit court sentenced him as a chronic offender to five years in the department of corrections. Nowicki appealed the circuit court's judgment, arguing that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that each of his four prior convictions qualifies as an IRTO.
The Supreme Court of Missouri held that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that each of Nowicki's prior convictions was an intoxication-related traffic offense. The court found that the state's evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the conduct underlying Nowicki's 1986, 1990, and 1994 convictions involved him actually, physically driving a vehicle while intoxicated. Accordingly, the court vacated the circuit court's judgment and remanded the case for resentencing.
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