Drunk Driver Gets Prison for Murders

In the first San Diego County case involving a murder conviction for felony drunk driving, a Vista Superior Court judge Thursday sentenced a 28-year-old Marine to 15 years to life in prison for the deaths of two men in a traffic collision.

Dennis Butler, a native of South Carolina, dabbed tears from his eyes before Judge J. Richard Haden passed down his sentence for the accident at a busy intersection in Oceanside last year.

Butler is only the second person in California without a history of drunk-driving arrests to be convicted of murder in connection with driving while intoxicated, according to prosecutors.

Killed in the crash were Victor Donnan, 20, a passenger in Butler’s car, and Craig Netteland, 31, whose pickup was struck head-on when the Marine ran a red light at more than 100 m.p.h. at the intersection of Mission Avenue and El Camino Real.

Another passenger in Butler’s car, 21-year-old Melissa Morales of Vista, suffered many and has pins in her hand, hip and jaw, according to prosecutors.

Pointed to Past Record

In reaching his ruling, the judge pointed to Butler’s driving record. Although Butler had no previous convictions for drunk driving, he had received half a dozen tickets for speeding, among them a traffic citation just two hours before the fatal crash. During that stop, a police officer warned Butler that his driving could lead to a death, prosecutors said.

Haden called the accident tragic, noting that “people’s lives were snuffed out and other lives were changed irrevocably.” He set bail for Butler at $250,000.

Gary Rempel, the deputy district attorney who handled the case, said he was pleased with the judge’s ruling, even though it was less severe than his request for two consecutive terms of 15 years-to-life.

“I’m happy the judge agreed that people who kill with cars should go to prison,” Rempel said. “It’s a message to drunk and dangerous drivers to get off the road or get out of town.”

Case to Be Appealed

Roy Spencer, a public defender who represented Butler, said the case would be appealed. Before Butler’s trial, Spencer and other public defenders had raised allegations that the North County office of the district attorney was selectively prosecuting nonwhites for second-degree murder for traffic fatalities linked to drunk driving.

Although those allegations were rejected by a Vista Superior Court judge in May, the issue is expected to be a significant part of the appeal on behalf of Butler, who is black.

Spencer predicted that, if the appeal is not successful, Butler will be granted parole when he is first eligible after 7 1/2 years in prison. The defense attorney said his client is a remorseful man anxious to set his life back on course again.

The case received widespread attention, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving monitored the proceedings daily. Despite such scrutiny, Spencer said he feels that the group had little to effect on the outcome.

Natalie Greetzman, a representative of MADD, said the judge’s sentencing of Butler was “a significant occasion. It’s been a long time coming.”

‘A Strong Message’

“This should send out a strong message that, if you choose to drink and drive and you kill, you very well may have to stand trial for murder,” she said.

About 20 members of Butler’s Marine unit at Camp Pendleton, all of them in dress khakis, attended the hearing on the orders of their company commander, who suggested the occasion might prove an important lesson on the dangers of driving while drunk.

During the hearing, Spencer said it was “not your typical second-degree murder” because the collision “was not intentional in any way.”

Rempel, however, portrayed Butler as a person who “bragged of driving fast” and liked to talk about having the quickest car in his Marine unit.

“The defendant, in his driving behavior, seemed to be a killer looking for a victim,” Rempel said.

New soldiers in the Marine unit were told “not to ride with Butler,” who rolled his car on a city street less than a year before the fatal wreck, Rempel said.

“This Mad Max of our freeways continued, right up to the day of the murder,” Rempel concluded, noting that Butler’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident was well above legal limits.