GILMER (TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH) -- A state district judge is scheduled
to sentence a Pittsburg woman next week after an Upshur County jury
convicted her Tuesday of driving while intoxicated with child passenger.
Courtney
Farnsworth Lemmon, 23, elected to be sentenced by trial Judge Lauren
Parish of the 115th District Court rather than the jury which convicted
Ms. Lemmon Tuesday on one of three counts of the offense. She was
acquitted of the others, said Upshur County Assistant District Attorney
Natalie Miller, who jointly prosecuted with fellow Assistant District
Attorney Camille Henson.
Ms. Lemmon, who is seeking probation, could
receive 6-18 months in state jail instead, and Miss Miller said Thursday
the state will recommend a jail term because of the offense's
seriousness. The defendant is free on bond pending sentencing.
Ms.
Lemmon was charged with committing the crimes the night of April 28,
2012, while her three children, all under age six, were in the back seat
of her vehicle. Represented by Tyler attorney John Eastland, she
pleaded not guilty.
Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper
Sandy Mac Taylor stopped her on Texas 155 in a rural area for a
defective headlight only five minutes after Winona police had stopped
her for the same violation, Miss Miller said.
Miss Miller said a
video of the traffic stop presented during the two-day trial showed Ms.
Lemmon initially told Taylor she hadn't drank anything that night, but
that he smelled alcohol, had her step out of her car, and performed a
field sobriety test.
"She started changing her story," saying she
had been drinking in Austin and that something had spilled in her car
either the day before or a few days earlier, Miss Miller said. Ms.
Lemmon wanted a breathalyzer test, but state law requires a mandatory
blood test, the prosecutor said.
The defendant's blood alcohol
level was .133, which is more than the minimum .08 level to be
considered legally intoxicated, Miss Miller said.
The defense
contended Ms. Lemmon wasn't intoxicated at the time she was driving. But
the Tyler DPS chemist who tested her blood, Karen Ream, "kind of blew
that defense out of the water" by saying the stop happened around 11:15
p.m.and her blood was drawn at 11:40, Miss Miller said.
Thus,
"there wasn't that much time" for the level to rise or fall, and Ms.
Ream testified the blood alcohol concentration was "very close to what
it was at the time she (the defendant) was driving," the prosecutor
said.
Eastland also maintained that machines which test blood
alcohol levels "can be wrong," but the state obtained four blood alcohol
concentration readings on Ms. Lemmon that were all very close, if not
identical, Miss Miller added.
Jurors took about two hours to
convict the defendant of one charge and acquit her of the other two
although three children were in the vehicle, the prosecutor said. Asked
why jurors reached a split verdict, Miss Miller said, "I don't know. I
guess they didn't want her to have three felony convictions. . .I
respect their verdict."
Miss MIller said she believed the
children were in child safety seats, as required by law, when their
mother was stopped. The law on driving while intoxicated with a child
passenger applies to children under age 15.
Ms. Lemmon neither testified nor presented any witnesses in the trial, which opened Monday, Miss Miller said.
State
witnesses besides Taylor and Ms. Ream included Neil Sheffield, an
ETMC-Gilmer hospital technician who drew the blood; and DPS Trooper
Robbie Moore, who transported it to Tyler for testing.
