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Christensen v. State1/13/1999
3960 NOTICE
Memorandum decisions of this court do not create legal precedent. See Alaska Appellate Rule 214(d) and Paragraph 7 of the Guidelines for Publication of Court of Appeals Decisions (Court of Appeals Order No. 3). Accordingly, this memorandum decision may not be cited for any proposition of law, nor as an example of the proper resolution of any issue.
Court of Appeals No. A-6916 Trial Court No. 3AN-S98-221CR
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND JUDGMENT
Appeal from the District Court, Third Judicial District, Anchorage, Stephanie Rhoades, Judge.
Nick J. Christensen, III, pleaded no contest to attempted vehicle theft in the first degree and driving while intoxicated, both class A misdemeanors. District Court Judge Stephanie Rhoades sentenced Christensen to a composite total of 360 days' imprisonment. Christensen contends this sentence is erroneous. Because we conclude that the sentence was not clearly mistaken, we affirm.
On January 9, 1998, Christensen took his cousin's car, struck another car from behind, and fled the scene on foot. After he was arrested, his breath-alcohol level was 0.261. In 1991, Christensen had been convicted of manslaughter and felony assault for broadsiding a van, killing one of its passengers and injuring the other two, while driving with an alcohol level of 0.250. Christensen had received a composite sentence of 11 years with 5 years suspended for the 1991 convictions. Christensen also has a criminal history of prior misdemeanor convictions: in 1991, assault; in 1990, two convictions for assault; and in 1987, assault and shoplifting.
Judge Rhoades commented on the facts of Christensen's 1991 felony convictions, stating that in that case Christensen had behaved "extremely recklessly." Judge Rhoades remarked that Christensen had been using and abusing alcohol from an early age, stating that prior assault convictions had also been alcohol-related. Judge Rhoades also found that, despite completing alcohol treatment after his 1991 convictions, and despite the fact that Christensen remained on felony probation for them, Christensen had committed the present offenses; she noted that she saw "very little difference" between the facts of the 1991 offenses and the present crimes "except for in the most recent case [Christensen] did not cause a death" and except for the fact that Christensen's alcohol content was even higher this time, at 0.261.
Judge Rhoades found that Christensen was "a worst offender in this category of offense." She also found that, because Christensen kept "binge" drinking to "very high alcohol content levels" and kept committing offenses even after prior rehabilitation efforts, a maximum sentence was required to deter Christensen and express community condemnation:
"And I do not believe that if you've already had the benefit of going to a residential treatment program and completing required after-care, and even attending AA meetings, is my understanding, that anything short of a maximum sentence would be able to rehabilitate you. "I think that rehabilitation has already been addressed rather substantially in the last case, that you have taken advantage of it and you still, nonetheless, reoffended while on felony probation. So, I see nothing to do here except to consider the factor of deterring you from doing this again since by this very conduct in [this case] individuals could have died. And you simply have not seen fit to prevent yourself from engaging in this conduct through rehabilitation. So, deterring you from doing this again is incredibly important. Deterring anyone from thinking about driving while intoxicated, given that the consequences are exactly w
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