BEAUMONT, Texas — A Texas appeals court has overturned what could have amounted to a life sentence for a 63-year-old Hardin County man found guilty of a DWI.
Pat Lane Swanzy Jr, 63, was indicted in 2021 for what prosecutors say was his third DWI and later found guilty by a Hardin County jury according to a ruling from the Texas' Ninth Court of Appeals.
The charge was a Class A misdemeanor which originally meant he would face probation or a year in prison.
However, at sentencing, prosecutors brought up two prior DWI charges and because of them he then faced an enhanced punishment for having three DWIs.
The enhanced punishment meant he would then face from 25 to 99 years in prison. The jury opted for the maximum sentence and gave Swanzy 99 years behind bars.
In his appeal, Swanzy said that his first DWI was in 1979 and that after he successfully completed probation it did not result in a conviction on his record.
The appeals court agreed saying, "we agree with Swanzy that the State failed to prove he suffered a final conviction on the 1979 DWI."
His case has now been sent back to the lower court to “render a judgment of conviction on a Class A misdemeanor DWI” and to conduct a new punishment hearing before a jury.
The punishment for a Class A misdemeanor DWI could be probation or a year in prison and a $4,000 fine.
Swanzy was sentenced in April 2022 and is currently incarcerated at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony near Palestine in East Texas.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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