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Man sentenced in Williamsburg DUI crash

By Emily Mapp Brannon

Mark Schneider will spend a year in jail after drunkenly hitting pedestrian Irene Carson last Christmas Eve, a Williamsburg-James City County circuit court judge ruled this week.

Schneider, 39, struck Carson, 72, as Carson crossed Francis Street East in Williamsburg, the Daily Press reported. Francis Street runs along the southern edge of what is generally considered historic Williamsburg.

"You are an example to the community of what can happen when you drink to excess and drive," Judge Samuel Powell of Williamsburg-James City County said to Schneider during the sentencing hearing.

Carson, of Chadds Ford, Pa., was apparently not at the hearing. But the Daily Press said she suffered multiple skull fractures in the crash and will likely never recover fully.

Schneider works as a historic interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg; a manager there testified at the sentencing hearing that Schneider can keep his job.

Schneider can serve his sentence at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail on weekends; he is to report for his first day on Dec. 24, a year after the crash.

Schneider had a blood-alcohol content of .19, meaning almost two-tenths of one percent of his blood was alcohol. In Virginia, .08 is the legal minimum for intoxication, though drivers can be arrested with lesser levels if they are driving in a manner a police officers thinks indicates intoxication.

Schneider pleaded guilt to a charge of felony assault, the Daily Press said. A charge of maiming while driving was not ruled upon by the judge, who can dismiss it later if he chooses.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (VA-NC law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers.

(MM)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Emily Mapp Brannon

Full post as published by Norfolk-Portsmouth Personal Injury Lawyer on November 28, 2009 (boomark / email).