SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A repeat drunken driver whose blood alcohol-level measured three times the legal limit when he injured a pedestrian so seriously that one of his legs had to be amputated has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
The Greene County prosecutor’s office announced Friday that 44-year-old William Jeremiah Shelton, of Springfield, also was ordered last month to pay the victim $29,000 in restitution for driving while intoxicated and causing serious physical injury.
Prosecutors say Shelton lost control of his vehicle in September 2018 while taking a turn too fast and pinned a man who had been waiting to cross the street to a traffic pole. Besides having to have a leg amputated, the victim also suffered two broken femurs and a crushed pelvis.
Shelton’s blood-alcohol level measure .289%. Shelton also had two prior convictions for driving while intoxicated.
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