A
Houston man with five prior convictions for driving while intoxicated
was sentenced this week to 35 years in prison for killing another driver
in a drunken driving
crash in 2018, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced
Saturday.
“A
completely innocent father of four lost his life because this man could
not stop drinking and driving,” Ogg said. “When repeat offenders
continue to drive drunk time
after time, it means no one is safe on our streets and highways.”
Owen
McNett, 50, was convicted by a jury last month, and he chose to have
his punishment determined by State District Judge Lori Chambers Gray.
After hearing from McNett’s
defense counsel, the judge put off the punishment hearing until this
week. He was sentenced late Wednesday.
McNett
killed 54-year-old Wayne Childers in a drunken driving wreck about 8
p.m. on Feb. 9, 2018. McNett was driving a Ram 1500 pickup when he
approached a three-way
stop at Telge and Boudreaux roads in Cypress. Childers was driving a
Buick Verano on Boudreaux and was trying to turn south on Telge. McNett
went through the stop sign at 40 mph and T-boned the driver’s side of
Childers’ car, killing Childers.
A
Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrested McNett at the hospital.
McNett’s blood alcohol level was .31, almost four times the legal limit
of .08.
McNett had been arrested for DWI five times before the crash and had three long stints in prison.
In
1992, McNett was convicted in Kimble County for DWI and put on
probation. In 1996, he was arrested by Benbrook police in Tarrant County
for his second DWI and sentenced
to 30 days in jail. Ten years later, in 2006, he was convicted of DWI
in Johnson County and sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2007,
Houston police officers arrested McNett for his fourth DWI for which he
received four years in prison. In November 2012,
DPS troopers arrested him in McLennan County for his fifth DWI. He was
given a six-year prison sentence.
He
has now been convicted of felony murder, a criminal charge that allows a
person to be prosecuted for murder for causing a death while committing
another felony, such
as Driving While Intoxicated.
Sean Teare, chief of the District Attorney’s Office Vehicular Crimes Division, prosecuted the case.
