Drunk driver sent to prison for causing serious crash

A drunk driving illegal alien who slammed head-on into another vehicle last year will spend three years in the penitentiary before being deported back to Mexico.

The defendant, Raul G. Lara, was ordered by Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to serve three years, pay $1,000 plus court costs, perform 100 hours public service work and forfeit his driver’s license for one year in consideration for his plea recently on the charge of vehicular assault. Judge Stanley added the immigration department should be alerted to Lara’s illegal alien status so he can be deported after his time is served.

The sentence was rendered even as Lara’s victim, Lisa Roberts, listened from the court gallery. Roberts was critically injured and is still undergoing treatment and surgeries for the injuries sustained in the head-on crash on Bluff Springs Road.

Witnesses reported seeing Lara driving recklessly just prior to the crash, his vehicle weaving and barely missing other cars. Lara told the court he could not remember most of the time leading up to the crash, which left him trapped in the wreckage with serious injuries. Investigators say Lara’s vehicle crossed the centerline on Bluff Springs Road and ran head-on into the approaching Roberts vehicle.

Lara, who did not have a driver’s license, was found to have a blood-alcohol content of .29, a number which is more than three times the state’s .08 limit of intoxication.