DWI death trial may have lasting impact

10:24 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 19, 2004

By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV

A young widow now raising twin toddlers on her own testified Tuesday against the drunk driver who slammed into the family's car.

Julie and Brent Jones were coming home from a Christmas party in December 2003 - their first night out alone after the premature births of their twins.

About the same time that night, Jake Strickland left a downtown Fort Worth bar and turned the wrong way on a one-way street, quickly reaching speeds of 70 miles an hour, according to investigators who reconstructed the head-on crash.

"He's passing almost a hundred red reflectors in the street that are telling him, 'wrong way,' 'wrong way,' 'wrong way,'" said prosecutor Mollee Westfall. "He's barreling down Belknap Street at almost highway speed."

"I knew I had been in a horrific crash," Julie Jones said. "I started yelling Brent's name."

Though tragic, the case is important because of what it could mean to future attempts to get repeat DWI offenders off the road.

Normally, the charge would be intoxication manslaughter with maximum punishment of 20 years. But when police learned Strickland had two previous DWI convictions, they charged him with felony murder, which could result in a life sentence.

If it works, other prosecutors will try the same tactic to send deadly drunk drivers to prison for long sentences.

Defense attorneys aren't disputing their client was drunk, or that he killed Brent Jones. However, they stress that it wasn't murder - and on that issue they will fight.

"The government, sad to say, is playing to the cameras - publicity seeking," said defense attorney Terri Moore. "(It's) shameful pandering to the media to hold Jake up by example and say, 'you murdered somebody.' He's not trying to avoid responsibility. He is guilty. He's guilty of intoxicated manslaughter."

Lawyers across Texas will be watching the outcome.