A five-time drunken driver with a blood alcohol concentration more than three times the legal limit was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Parker County judge in a trial held this week in Weatherford.
In rendering his sentence, Judge Don Chrestman told Kathryn Ann Vanderburgh, 56, of Saginaw, “Based upon the facts and the totality of your circumstances, I have nothing I can do to help you. I can help some people on the highways by keeping you off the highways, so I’m going to sentence you to eight years.”
Vanderburgh was arrested for a felony driving while intoxicated charge May 1.
The charge resulted after Vanderburgh had an accident with an 18-wheeler on Highway 199 in Springtown, according to Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain, who prosecuted the case.
A blood sample was drawn from Vanderburgh at Weatherford Regional Medical Center which showed her blood alcohol concentration at 0.29. The legal limit for intoxication in Texas is 0.08.
Vanderburgh pleaded guilty in October and elected to have 43rd District Court Judge Chrestman determine her punishment.
During her testimony, Vanderburgh described being convicted of two DUI cases in California, a 1994 DWI case in Dallas County, and a 2007 DWI in Tarrant County.
According to court records, which were admitted into evidence, she was on probation for the last case when she was arrested in Parker County for the charge in May.
Vanderburgh testified she had been through about six rehabilitation programs with a total duration of nearly two years while battling her alcoholism.
She said none of the programs addressed what she said were her “core problems,” which she related were a troubled childhood and abusive marital situation.
The prosecution called two Haltom City Police officers to testify about another DWI case Vanderburgh received in March of last year, but was not convicted.
Haltom City Police Sgt. Chris Reed testified the department received two 9-1-1 calls about Vanderburgh’s driving, which included driving on the sidewalk at a McDonalds.
Vanderburgh was so intoxicated, Reed said they released her to medical personnel who took her to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth rather than book her in jail.
Reed testified prior to her being released, Vanderburgh told him she needed to go home and check on her roommate, who she believed was dead.
Reed added at that time he took her statement to be a drunken rambling. The following day, Haltom City officers were called to investigate the death of Vanderburgh’s roommate.
According to Cpl. Eric Chambless, the roommate was shot in her bed and found dead on the floor of the bedroom of the one-bedroom efficiency apartment she shared with Vanderburgh.
During an interview with Chambless, Vanderburgh admitted she probably accidentally shot her roommate when she was handing her a pistol she wanted to see.
It was after the shooting that Vanderburgh was pulled over for DWI in Haltom City and taken to the hospital, according to the officer’s testimony.
Vanderburgh also testified while at the hospital, she removed her own IVs, took at taxi home and began drinking again.
She said a neighbor who came downstairs to her apartment checked on her roommate then called the police after determining the roommate was dead.
When the case was presented to the Tarrant County Grand Jury, members no-billed Vanderburgh.
“We offered the evidence from Haltom City not to show that this defendant committed a murder, but rather to show the judge yet another event in Ms. Vanderburgh’s life that should have made her step back and re-evaluate what she was doing,” Swain said. “I would have hoped that a person who got so drunk that she shot her roommate, left her body there to go get fast food without calling for help, later returned to the apartment with her dead friend and started drinking again rather than calling 9-1-1 would see that as an opportunity for change and an indication that your life had gone badly wrong. Instead, this defendant got another DWI in August 2007, and then got ours less than a year later.”
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5-time DWI sentenced
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