Prosecutor disturbed by slew of new DUI cases

Kim Smith

Friday, May 12, 2000 | 11:31 a.m.

Most people leave work and forget about it as soon as they get in their car.

Gary Booker doesn't. He thinks about his job whenever he's behind the wheel and whenever he's watching the TV news.

Booker is one of only four lawyers in the Clark County District Attorney's Office who prosecutes driving under the influence cases.

With 13 people dying in five drug or alcohol-related accidents over the past 14 weeks, Booker would be hard pressed to forget his responsibilities as a prosecutor.

The latest accident took place Wednesday night.

"National statistics show that one in five drivers is impaired so when I sit at a stop light I count cars," Booker said. "One, two, three, four, drunk. One, two, three, four, high."

Booker didn't fall asleep until 3 a.m. Thursday. He learned he would be getting a new case on the 10 p.m. news Wednesday.

"I just wanted to cry when I saw it," Booker said.

Michael Owen Pickett, 24, is accused of rear-ending a car carrying Mary Lynn Sargent, 46, a 59-year-old man who hasn't been identified and 22-year-old Michelle Jamieson, who was eight-months-pregnant.

Sargent and the man died and Jamieson underwent an emergency Caesarean section after being critically injured. She died Thursday afternoon. Her newborn son was in critical condition this morning.

Pickett was charged with three counts of driving under the influence of alcohol, and police also found narcotics paraphernalia in his pickup.

Pickett has now joined a growing list of drivers such as Clark Morse, Jessica Williams and Juanita Kim McDonald who will see Booker or one of his fellow prosecutors in court.

So many new fatality DUI cases are stacking up that Booker's office is struggling to keep up.

"We are working our tails off doing the best we can, but because we're getting so many of these fatality cases our more mundane cases aren't getting as much attention," Booker said.

Booker said his unit of prosecutors tries 60 misdemeanor DUI cases per week and they have between 300 and 400 felony DUI cases waiting to be disposed of. That doesn't include the 500 other felony traffic-related cases that are pending.

The thing that Booker finds scary is that there is only one difference between a misdemeanor DUI and a fatal DUI case.

"You know what it is? Luck," Booker said.

Sandy Heverly, executive director of STOP DUI, also is sickened by the rash of DUI incidents.

"I don't ever recall having so many fatal accidents in such a short amount of time, and I've been doing this 17 years," Heverly said. "Whether they'll balance out over the year, I don't know. I can't think of a word to describe what's going on here."

Although Nevada traditionally has 5 percent more fatal DUI cases than the national average, Heverly said she had been encouraged by recent DUI statistics.

In 1999, there were 129 fatal DUI crashes in Nevada compared to 157 the year before, Heverly said. Sixty nine of the 1999 crashes were in Clark County, compared to 102 the year before.

But now, Heverly said she's starting to think that the Governor's Commission on Drunk Driving, which was disbanded in the early 1990s, needs to be revived.

"Things were looking pretty good, and we thought we were making progress with our numbers coming down every year, but now's not the time to rest on our laurels," Heverly said. "We don't want to see 10 or 20 less accidents a year. We want the number to be zero."

Heverly still had Mike Wienkes heavy on her mind when Wednesday's accident occurred.

Wienkes was a tourist from Wisconsin. He died Sunday morning three weeks after being hit by car driven by McDonald. Police say she was high on methamphetamine, ecstasy and marijuana.

The 36-year-old father of two was struck two hours after he and his wife arrived on what was supposed to be a three-day, two-night vacation package, Heverly said. They had just freshened up at the Tropicana hotel-casino and decided to walk down the Strip to see the newest casinos.

Heverly has spent much of the past three weeks comforting Wienkes' wife. She had even made arrangements to fly Wienkes to a Wisconsin hospital. He was supposed to have made the trip home Tuesday.

The Wienkes accident happened exactly one month after six teens were struck and killed as they were picking up trash in the median of Interstate 15 near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The driver of the van that hit them, Williams, is suspected of being under the influence of marijuana and ecstasy.

Just one week before that, Morse rear-ended a car with Megabucks winner Cynthia Jay-Brennan in it. She sustained spinal cord injuries and her sister was killed. Police say Morse was drunk at the time.

Booker said because there have been so many accidents lately he has been hearing more and more people complain about the disparity in second-degree murder sentences and fatal DUI sentences.

Second-degree murderers can get life sentences and drunk drivers can only get up to 20 years, Booker said.

While some would argue murderers, by definition, must act with premeditation and deliberation, there are those who say people who drink or take drugs and then get into a car do the same, Booker said.

"If you want to be a drunk, that's your business," Booker said. "It only becomes our business when you get in your car, and it's the same with drugs. When you get in your car, that's a whole other thing."

Perhaps the number of fatal accidents are increasing lately, Booker said, because with so many new residents, it's hard to find back roads.

"Our drunks can't nurse themselves back home anymore," Booker said.

Heverly is praying for the recent cycle to end.

"I dread turning on the news," she said. "Lately, I'm just holding my breath when I turn on the TV and praying 'God, don't let there be another senseless tragedy, don't let there be another victim out there.' "

Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at kimberly@lasvegassun.com.