BRYAN, Texas — A College Station man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for his 10th DWI conviction, according to a release the Brazos County District Attorney's Office.
Darwin Batton, 60, has been convicted on DWI charges since 1984, when he received his first conviction in Brazos County. That conviction led to a probation, but was later revoked after he was caught driving while drunk in Jefferson County three years later, in 1987.
In the years since his first and second convictions, he has been charged with DWI in multiple other Texas counties, including Orange County, Hays County, and Alice County. Batton has also received DWI charges in Rogers County and Tulsa County in Oklahoma.
On May 15, 2016, he was arrested on his ninth DWI charge again after a citizen informed police that they noticed Batton staggering around in public at a Wal Mart staggering and talking to himself around 2:30 in the afternoon. An officer later pulled him over and found that his blood alcohol concentration was twice the legal limit after a warrant was obtained to have his BAC level examined.
Batton's charge at trial was upped because of his previous convictions and prison sentences. According to the release, he had served three separate prison sentences, two of which were from DWI convictions. The other was from a controlled substance possession charge. The enhanced time that he could face behind bars ranged from 25 years to 99 years or life in prison.
The longest time he spent behind bars prior to the verdict on Monday, Oct. 9 was 15 years in 1993 in Brazos County.
"Our community thrives because citizens look out for each other," said Assistant District Attorneys Kara Comte and Brian Price in the release. "If an attentive person hadn't called the police, the damage could have been so much worse. We are thankful that this man will hopefully never drive on our streets again."
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