23-year-old Matthew Silva of Gilroy received close to three-year sentence in Monterey, California for DUI charges stemming from a traffic occurrence in June. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, on Thursday, August 20th, announced that the suspect would serve his sentence at the California Department of Corrections.
The incident leading to the arrest played out at about 2:20 a.m. on June 20th. Monterey Police Officers responded to a 911 call of a reckless driver doing “donuts” at 300 Freemont Street. Upon their arrival, officers found two men beside the described vehicle and determined they were both intoxicated.
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Due to probable cause, since neither of them was behind the wheels, officers made no arrest. Instead, they ordered Matthew Silver and the other man to shut the vehicle until a sober person came to retrieve it.
A Monterey officer, who was part of this intervention spotted the truck a short while later and recognized the two intoxicated men traveling in it. Officers attempted a traffic stop on the vehicle, driven by Silva, but the men failed to oblige, fleeing instead.
When Stockton police caught up with the truck, they found Silva in the back passenger seat, as an attempt to fool the lawmen into believing he was not the driver. They later identified him as the driver. Toxicology tests determined he had blood/alcohol levels of 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit.
During the Thursday court hearing, Matthew Silva, represented by a drunk driving attorney, pleaded guilty to felony DUI/alcohol, with levels exceeding 0.08. The suspect, who had three prior convictions of impairment, also admitted an enhancement for driving with blood alcohol levels above 0.15 percent.
Ultimately, a Monterey County Judge, Mark Hood, sentenced him to two years and eight months in a correctional facility.
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