This should have been done after his 3rd offense. Too much goddam criminal coddling. Drunk drivers are persons and maimers.
What you do you think is the right punishment for a drunk driver? Especially one who's been convicted eight times for drinking and driving.
8time DWI finally gets life in prison 5029I'm not stupid. I'm highly educated, especially in the field of mental ilnesses, including the alcoholism, and have researched the problem in-depth. Trust me, I could make you act unreasonably and irresponsibly, should you...
A Williamson County jury decided that 49-year-old Gary Gibbs deserved life in prison. That's the maximum sentence possible.
No one News 36 talked to says they are surprised by the jury's decision to sentence Gary Gibbs to life, but family and friends of Gibbs says he's a man with an illness and a product of a failed system.
"The only way we can protect us, protect our community, is too keep him locked up," prosecutor Shawn privates said.
"For those who say prison is the solution, Gary Gibbs is living testimony it's not," defense attorney Russ Sablatura said.
The fate of Gary Gibbs was battled out before the jury and then the decision of a life in prison was announced.
"I was not surprised by the verdict," Sablatura said.
Gibbs showed no emotion, but had his defense lawyer read his statement.
"Naturally I wanted the verdict to have turned out differently from what it did. Unfortunately for me, I have made some poor decisions," Sablatura read.
"I'm not surprised. If I had been on the jury, I'm sure I would have done the same thing," Gibbs' sister Kerry Tonne said.
"He's a very generous and caring person. He just a person with a serious illness," Gibbs' friend Jim Guiterrez said.
It is an illness Gibbs has never sought help for, and though he had his license taken away and had been sent to prison twice before that didn't stop him from drinking and driving again.
"But to say that we have a good system that is working effectively is obviously not the case," Sablatura said.
"I hope this case will signal we need to do more to stop drinking and driving," Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said.
Now because he has been sentenced to life, Gibbs has to serve 30 years before he will be up for parole.
