PORT ANGELES — Three times was not a charm for 59-year-old Kimberly Rene Wilcox.
The Port Angeles woman’s third driving-while-intoxicated conviction in a Sept. 5 Clallam County District Court jury trial earned her a $5,000 fine and a 364-day sentence handed down by Judge Rick Porter.
Wilcox’s punishment consists of six months in jail and, when she’s released, six more months at an inpatient drug-treatment program that if she fails to undergo will earn her six months in jail instead.
Porter meted out the maximum punishment for District Court. Chris Cowgill, county deputy prosecuting attorney, last week cited Wilcox’s “complete lack of responsibility,” adding it took her seven years to collect the three DUIs.
“It was always someone else’s fault, some other reason,” Cowgill said. “She basically took no accountability.”
Porter went above the mandatory minimum sentence for a third DUI, which is 120 days of jail with 150 days of electronic home monitoring when the person tests above 0.15 for blood alcohol content.
The legal limit is 0.08 percent. Wilcox’s BAC was 0.24 percent two hours after her 8:30 a.m. June 1 arrest because at first she refused a breathalyzer test, Cowgill said.
Cowgill said Wilcox was in the parking lot of the Lincoln Street Safeway in Port Angeles when people there told her they were concerned she was intoxicated.
They followed her after she left in her 2001 Toyota Tacoma truck, saw her drive erratically and called 9-1-1, Cowgill said.
After Wilcox pulled over in the 500 block of East First Street, Port Angeles Police Officer Eric Walker met her where she had parked after he was notified of the 9-1-1 call.
Walker conducted a sobriety test, saw liquor bottles in her truck and arrested her.
After being driven to the Clallam County jail, Wilcox refused to take a blood alcohol test, law enforcement said.
Walker obtained a search warrant to draw her blood, which the State Patrol Toxicology Laboratory determined had a blood-alcohol content of 0.24 percent.
Cowgill said Wilcox was unemployed and was living out of her vehicle when she was arrested.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
