Recent Changes in DWI Law

Recently passed House Bill 972, also known as the new “crime bill,” makes some significant changes in several laws regarding crime, specifically in the laws pertaining to DWIs. 

The bill expands the crime of involuntary manslaughter in the first degree.  Involuntary manslaughter, in this situation, can be defined as the act of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated which results in the death of a non-passenger, or doing so and causing the death of two or more people, or doing so with a blood-alcohol content of more than .18% and causing the death of any person.  This is also called aggravated vehicular manslaughter.  This expansion increases the penalty from a class C felony, which means a maximum prison term of ten years, to a class B felony, which entails a prison term of at least ten years to a maximum of twenty years, in these particular situations.

The bill changes the definition of "persistent offender."  Currently, persistent offender, as used in Chapter 577, RSMo, is defined as a person with two or more convictions for intoxication-related offenses during the past 10 years.  The bill removes the time requirements so as to include all past intoxication-related offenses.

Two new types of offender status, "aggravated offender" and "chronic offender", are created for the purposes of applying the enhanced penalties and prison requirements of Section 577.023.  An aggravated offender is a person convicted of:

• Three intoxication-related offenses; or
• Two intoxication-related offenses, when one of them is for:
  • involuntary manslaughter,
  • murder in the second degree (a class A felony, which can be punished by death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for 20 years or more) when the underlying felony is an intoxication-related offense,
  • aggravated vehicular manslaughter, 
  • assault in the second degree (operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated or under the influence of controlled substances or drugs which causes physical injury to any other person), or
  • assault of a law enforcement officer in the second degree.

A chronic offender is a person convicted of:

• Four or more intoxication-related offenses;
• Two seperate occasions resulting in convictions for:
  • Involuntary manslaughter,
  • aggravated vehicular manslaughter,
  • assault in the second degree, or
  • assault of a law enforcement officer in the second degree, or
    
• One prior conviction for:
  • Involuntary manslaughter, or
  • aggravated vehicular manslaughter, or
  • assault in the second degree, or assault of a law enforcement officer in the second degree,
  • and two other intoxication-related offenses.

The bill makes driving while intoxicated or driving with an excessive blood-alcohol content a class C felony when the defendant is sentenced as an aggravated offender and a class B felony when sentenced as a chronic offender.  Aggravated offenders must serve at least 60 days of imprisonment and chronic offenders at least two years of imprisonment before becoming eligible for probation or parole.

The bill expands the crime of endangering the welfare of a child in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor.  The offense is committed when a person operating a motor vehicle commits involuntary manslaughter, assault in the second degree, driving while intoxicated, or driving with excessive blood-alcohol content while a child younger than 17 years of age is in the vehicle.