The charge
Texas Penal Code Section 49.08. Second degree felony, two to twenty years in TDCJ and a fine up to $10,000. If the person who died was a peace officer, firefighter, or emergency responder in the line of duty, it is a first degree felony.
It is a 3g offense with a deadly weapon finding, which means parole eligibility is calculated differently and probation from a jury is limited. Multiple deaths mean multiple counts, and Texas allows those sentences to be stacked.
Causation is the case
The State must prove that by reason of intoxication you caused the death. Not that you were intoxicated and a death occurred. The gap between those two sentences is where these cases live.
I have seen the State's theory collapse on facts that had nothing to do with alcohol: the other vehicle crossed the center line, a pedestrian entered the roadway outside a crosswalk at night, a tire failed, a signal was mistimed. None of that is a defense to DWI. All of it is a defense to manslaughter.
The blood, taken seriously
In a fatality case there is always blood, and it is often drawn at a hospital, sometimes hours after the crash. Three questions I ask on every one of these.
- Was the sample serum or plasma rather than whole blood? Hospital labs typically test serum, which runs higher than whole blood. If somebody applied the wrong conversion factor, the reported number is inflated.
- What was the time gap between driving and the draw, and what does retrograde extrapolation actually support? Extrapolating backwards requires assumptions about absorption that frequently do not hold.
- What does the chromatogram show? Not the summary. The chromatogram, the calibration curve, the controls, and the analyst's notes.
This is the work. More on how blood testing gets challenged.