A
Houston man with five prior convictions for driving while intoxicated
has been convicted of felony murder for killing another driver in a
drunken driving crash in 2018,
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Friday.
“This
is a repeat offender who was on parole for driving drunk when he killed
a husband and father of four,” Ogg said. “He was a one-man crime wave
on wheels, and it
was just a matter of time until he killed someone.”
Owen
McNett, 50, was convicted by a jury on Tuesday, 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 Nov.
16.
McNett
was driving a Ram 1500 pickup about 8 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2018, when he
approached a three-way stop at Telge and Boudreaux roads in Cypress.
Wayne Childers, 54, 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 him at the hospital. McNett’s
blood alcohol level was .31, almost four times the legal limit of .08.
McNett had been arrested for DWIs 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 what would be his fifth DWI. He was given a six-year prison
sentence.
He
has now been convicted of felony murder and faces a minimum of 25 years
in prison and maximum of life. Felony murder is a type of charge that
allows prosecutors to
charge a person with murder for causing the death of someone while
committing another felony, such as DWI.
Sean
Teare, chief of the District Attorney’s Office Vehicular Crimes
Division who prosecuted the case with William Orr, said he would seek a
life sentence for McNett.
“This
is our worst nightmare and an example of the system failing over and
over again,” Teare said. “The second he gets out, he could be 90 years
old and commit this
crime again and kill someone else. He only has to be strong enough to
turn the ignition key or push a button, and he’ll be behind the wheel of
a 5,500-pound deadly weapon.”
