Winston-Salem Journal, N.C., Scott Sexton column

Source: Winston-Salem Journal, N.mini storageC.Sept. 12--Learning from one's mistakes is apparently a concept that eludes serial drunken driver Johnny Ray Oldham.His maiden DWI was in 1987. His driver's license was yanked, and yet he figured it would be OK to drive without one. To no one's surprise, except possibly his own, Oldham was convicted of driving with a revoked operator's license that same year. He followed that performance up with another DWI in 1990.A light bulb might have gone off for most, but not for Oldham. Perhaps the passage of time eroded memories of his brush with the law. Maybe he was just lucky. Or maybe he's that guy who keeps touching a hot stove despite burning his fingers.But for whatever reason, Oldham decided to get behind the wheel when he was loaded the night of May 14, 2008. And the consequences were even worse: he crashed his truck on South Frontage Road near Clemmonsville Road, killed his girlfriend, Eva Kristina Lindberg, and spent 2 years and 9 months in prison for it.So why in the world was the 47-year-old in court Wednesday facing yet another DWI and another series of driving while license revoked charges?Looking for a breakAs Forsyth District Court goes, the docket in front of Judge Laurie Hutchins Wednesday was light. Her honor plowed through the routine and the unusual with the skill of someone who's heard it all twice.She found guilty the jug head who caused a wreck while reading his text messages and sent to jail a woman who nearly died in a boozy car crash. In between, she ordered the sheriff's office to escort an inmate to pay his last respects to his grandmother at the visitation before her funeral.Those matters out of the way, Hutchins turned her attention to the sentencing of Oldham. He appeared in front of her a month ago for a bond hearing even though he'd "had a couple beers to calm my nerves" and she remembered."He looks a lot better today than he did then," she said.Then the attorneys plowed into the heart of the matter.Prosecutor Aaron Berlin outlined the facts of the state's case. After a sheriff's deputy hit the blue lights on May 17 after clocking him doing 68 mph in a 45 mph zone on Gumtree Road, Oldham ran off the road and crashed into a fence.Trooper Joe Byrd of the N.C. Highway Patrol rolled up, and they found Oldham still in the driver's seat with an open beer in the floorboard. According to affidavits, Oldham had very slurred speech, glaself storagesy eyes and repeatedly implored the trooper to "give me a break."He admitted being a former Oxycontin addict, flunked a couple field sobriety tests, and then attempted to unbuckle his pants so he could relieve himself between alco-sensor tests.Defense attorney George Cleland III then did his level best to help his unsympathetic client. He told the judge about Oldham's two children and described how distraught he still was over the death of his girlfriend. He explained, too, that the recent charges for driving with a revoked license all came when Oldham was going to work in Asheville as a welder.Then Oldham, at his own insistence, began talking. Any lawyer worth a power lunch can tell you that's not a good idea.Downward spiral and self-pityOldham began by interrupting a discussion of his history with substance abuse counseling by proclaiming "I'm not actually an alcoholic."(Considering that Oldham showed up for court halfway in the bag a month ago, some might consider that denial. But that's beside the point.)He then launched into a rambling discussion about the "down spiral of my life," bashed the Journal for reporting his case and said that he hadn't smiled in more than five years since Lindberg's death."If you give me a break, I'll never be back in front of you again .... This is the worst disaster of my life, I'm asking for maybe a little bit of human compassion," he said.Odd, but he never acknowledged out loud the disaster than ended Lindberg's life or the fact that he was the cause of it.Cleland then took over and asked for a sentence of less than the maximum two years. "I think half that would get his attention," he said.Berlin thought differently. "If you can't learn to not drive after already having killed somebody, then there is no other option I see to protect the community that to sentence him to the maximum," he said. "What else is the state supposed to do?"Without missing a beat, the judge handed down the maximum two years for the DWI and 120 days for the driving with a revoked license."Do not ever operate a motor vehicle again," Hutchins said just before Oldham was led away.Judging by his history, it doesn't seem likely that he'll learn this time either.ssexton@wsjournal.com(336) 727-7481Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Winston-Salem Journal (Winston Salem, N.C.) Visit Winston-Salem Journal (Winston Salem, N.C.) at 2.journalnow.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉