The convictions and 99-year sentence of a repeat drunken driver for murder and intoxication assault were affirmed Thursday by a Texarkana appellate court.
Antonio Bernard Moore, 50, was found guilty by a Bowie County jury in May 2015 of causing a crash on Memorial Day, May 24, 2014. Moore, who was on parole for felony DWI and prohibited from operating a motor vehicle, was driving a friend's Chevrolet Impala eastbound when he began fishtailing and crossed into the westbound lane on U.S. Highway 67 in Bowie County, resulting in the Impala's being struck on the passenger side by a Hyundai Sonata.
The accident took the life of Moore's 65-year-old passenger and seriously injured the driver of the Hyundai.
On appeal, Moore complained that his lawyer was ineffective for failing to interview the driver of the Hyundai before the trial and for failing to object to the introduction of two of his prior felony DWI convictions. The 6th District Court of Appeals, headquartered in Texarkana, disagreed with Moore's arguments and affirmed the jury's findings.
The opinion issued Thursday questions whether Moore's lawyer would have gleaned anything useful for the defense by interviewing the Hyundai's driver before trial. The court also stated that the prior convictions were divulged necessarily to the jury to prove that Moore was guilty of committing felony DWI at the time of the deadly collision, and thus guilty of murder.
"While on parole for felony drinking and driving, Moore drank to the point of intoxication, made the decision to drive and caused the death of his passenger and seriously injured another Bowie County citizen in a head-on collision," Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said Thursday. "Our office appreciates the sensible judgment of the Court of Appeals to uphold his convictions and to keep him out of our community and off of our roadways. Our citizens are safer as a result of this decision."
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, Moore was sentenced to eight years for a felony DWI on Oct. 8, 2008, and sentenced to 10 years for three felony DWI offenses in 1996. At trial, Crisp argued that Moore's criminal history contains repeated drunken driving arrests and convictions and that the accused had been given "chance after chance after chance" to conform his behavior to the law.
Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards asked the jury to assess a lengthy term to keep Moore off public roads.
The driver of the Sonata suffered cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder and multiple fractures in her arm that required surgery and left her with chronic pain and numbness, witnesses testified at trial.
Paramedics and a trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety reported that Moore smelled of alcohol and manifested other signs of intoxication at the scene of the accident. A blood specimen collected from Moore showed a blood alcohol level of .196, more than twice the legal limit of .08.
At trial before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart, Moore testified that six or seven beers is not enough alcohol to impair him. He also told the jury that the Impala had been sideswiped by another vehicle before it went careening across the center lane but other eyewitnesses refuted his claim at trial.
TDCJ's website lists Moore's parole eligibility date as June 24, 2044, when he will be 77, and his scheduled release date as June 24, 2113.