When losers collide.....Alabama

[PeteSC]

Repeat DUI offender convicted of vehicular homicide

The Associated Press
September 17. 2005 1:42PM



A man with three driving under the influence convictions has been found guilty of vehicular homicide in a crash that killed a Foley city councilman's son.

A Baldwin County jury convicted Solomon Porter, 58, Friday after a one-day trial.

Prosecutors said Porter was drunk while driving his Chevrolet pickup truck in July 2003 when he struck motorcyclist Charles Tolbert, the son of Foley Councilman Walter Heard.

Porter had been charged with manslaughter, but his defense attorney, Pascal Bruijn, told jurors during opening statements that Tolbert was at least partly at fault.

Bruijn said Tolbert was high on the drug ecstasy when he sped down a road on Foley's west side.

"Just because there was a death does not mean my client caused it," Bruijn said.

The Kawasaki motorcycle's headlight did not work, Tolbert was not wearing a helmet, and he did not have a motorcycle endorsement on his license, Bruijn argued.

"He was joy-riding up and down those roads in a reckless fashion," Bruijn told jurors. "He thinks he's Superman coming down that road."

Baldwin County Assistant District Attorney Jim Vollmer said Porter was southbound when his truck collided with Tolbert as the motorcycle skidded on its side into the truck. Porter's truck then rolled over the motorcycle and Tolbert.

The jury also found Porter guilty of not having a valid driver's license. Vollmer said Porter's Florida license had been revoked.

Porter had been jailed at the Baldwin County Corrections Center since his arrest. He pleaded guilty to DUI in the case, and had been convicted of the same crime at least three times before.

Court records show that he pleaded guilty to DUI in 1994, 2001 and 2002.

Porter has served roughly two years in jail since his latest arrest and faces a 5-year prison sentence for the vehicular homicide conviction, the least serious of three options given to jurors.



Wow, a habitual drunk driver, with no license, runs into a squid on ectasy, riding a bike with no headlight.....at least no innocent people were hurt.