Ten year step down in DWI also applies to refusal. State v Taylor 440 NJ Super. 387 (App. Div. 2015)

Ten year step down in DWI also applies to refusal. State v Taylor 440 NJ Super. 387 (App. Div. 2015)

In 2013, defendant Thomas Taylor entered a conditional guilty plea to refusal to submit to a breath test, N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.2, reserving the right "to appeal [] any and all issues, including sentencing." Although defendant had no prior convictions for refusal, he had two prior convictions for driving while intoxicated (DWI), N.J.S.A. 39-4-50, in 1985 and 1996. The trial court sentenced defendant as a "third offender," using his DWI convictions to enhance the penalty for his refusal conviction.

On appeal, defendant argues that the "step-down" provision of the DWI statute, N.J.S.A. 39:4-50(a)(3), should apply so as to reduce his refusal conviction from a third to a second offense for sentencing purposes since it followed more than ten years after his second DWI conviction. The court agreed and held that where the penalty attendant to a driver's refusal conviction is enhanced by a prior conviction under the DWI statute, fairness dictates that it be similarly reduced by the sentencing leniency accorded a driver under the "step-down" provision of that statute when there is a hiatus of ten years or more between offenses.