At a jury trial in April, Steven Dixon was found guilty of a category B felony charge driving under the influence with a prior felony conviction. In a recent court hearing, the court re-sentenced Dixon for a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge because the Deputy District Attorney failed to present evidence of prior convictions at sentencing.
Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Michael Montero explained that the Nevada Revised Statutes requires that the prosecutor present evidence of prior felony convictions at the sentencing hearing, which did not happen.
Both Alternate Public Defender Maureen McQuillan and Deputy District Attorney Max Stovall agreed with the court’s synopsis and the opinion that since Stovall failed to offer evidence of prior convictions. Montero said the court could not allow new evidence into the matter after the sentencing, the only option the court had was to re-sentence Dixon under a driving under the influence one misdemeanor charge.
The court also cited previous case law in which the state failed to offer evidence of prior convictions at a similar sentence hearing and because a judgment of conviction had already been entered and processed, the case went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court stated that prior convictions must be proven at the time of sentencing and may not be admitted into evidence after.
Montero said that although the matter was under a different state statute, the language in the statute is identical to that in the case that went to the Supreme Court.
At a sentencing hearing on April 23, Dixon was sentenced to 36-120 months in prison with no credit for time served on the felony driving under the influence charge. He was also ordered to pay a $2,000 fine, $1,500 public defender fee, $3 DNA collection fee, $25 administrative assessment fee and $60 forensic fee.
Due to the lack of evidence of prior felonies presented at the sentencing hearing in April, the court rescinded the felony conviction and sentenced him on the DUI I misdemeanor charge and gave him the maximum sentence.
Dixon was pronounced guilty of driving under the influence level one misdemeanor charge rather than the felony charge. He was ordered to pay tuition for an educational course, pay a fine of $1,000, attend a treatment program and spend 6 months in the county jail. This sentence was ordered to run consecutive to the other cases for which he is currently serving time in prison.
Dixon is currently serving a sentence of 12-34 months in prison on a felony arson charge he was convicted of by jury trial last year, followed by another felony DUI prison sentence of 30-90 months from earlier this year. After those two prison sentences, he will serve the six months in jail rather than 36-120 months in prison sentenced originally.
