Felony conviction for getting repeated DUIs within 10 years, Mendocino knows how to sentence drunk drivers

A recidivist drunk driver was on the receiving end of guilty verdicts issued this afternoon by a Mendocino County Superior Court jury. 

Kent Donald Gladden, age 58, of Ukiah, was convicted of both driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol .08 or greater. The evidence presented to the jury was that the defendant's blood alcohol at the time of driving was over .16, twice the legal limit. On a separate issue, the jury found the defendant not guilty of two charges alleging that he had inflicted injury on another in the course of his unlawful driving.

Unknown to the jury but later found true by the Court was that defendant Gladden has suffered three prior convictions for driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol .08 or greater. The defendant was convicted in Sonoma County in 2007 of that misdemeanor charge. He has also been twice convicted in Mendocino County of that same offense -- once in 2009 and another in 2010, both as misdemeanors.

Because of the finding that the defendant has suffered three prior misdemeanor DUI convictions within the relevant ten-year time period, today's jury verdicts were entered into the record as felony convictions.

The matter was referred to the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department for a social study and sentencing recommendation. A felony sentencing hearing is now calendared for May 4, 2018 at 9 o'clock in the morning in Department H at the Ukiah courthouse.

The prosecutor who questioned witnesses and presented the People's trial evidence to the jury was Deputy District Attorney S. Houston Porter. This was DDA Porter's first felony jury trial. Job well done, Houston.

The investigating law enforcement agencies were the Ukiah Police Department and the California Department of Justice forensic crime lab. The Superior Court  judge who presided over the four-day trial was the Honorable John Behnke.