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Laningham
Laningham
Derek Laningham, who was already on deferred probation for DWI (driving while intoxicated) when he drunkenly drove head-on into a health care worker just getting off a shift in Port Arthur in 2022, will again receive probation with an added six-month up-front jail time sentence for the crime.
Laningham was found guilty of intoxication assault by a Jefferson County jury in October, but elected to have the court impose sentencing – which wasn’t handed down for a while, picking back up on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 9 a.m. Still, after expiration of the allotted extra time, the defense asked for even more. At the beginning of court, attorney Ryan Gertz asked presiding 252nd District Court Judge Raquel West for time when the case was first called, the judge advising that the victim was waiting in the courtroom. Shortly after, approximately 10 minutes, West called the case again.
Again, more time was requested. This time, Gertz made the court aware of a last-minute request that the judge had yet to review. Roughly an hour passed before the case was again ready for review. Once in front of the judge, the victim of Laningham’s DWI assault told West that he was still not back to 100%, and incurred in excess of $51,000 in medical bills and assorted fees due to the actions of the defendant.
“I feel like jail time should be imposed,” the victim told the court.
Gertz did not present any argument in person, referring instead to “letters of support” presented to the judge in private.
West did impose minimum jail time, as requested by the victim, mostly relying on community supervision to again try to deter Laningham from drunk driving. Laningham was sentenced to 10 years, probated instead for 10 years, ordered to pay $51,000 in restitution, serve six months of up-front time in jail, and complete drug treatment at ISF.
“Hopefully, that will give you all the tools you will need,” West told Laningham, adding that he will be required to purchase a SCRAM device to alert the court if he decides to drink alcohol and drive an auto. In order for West to allow probation instead of the jail time required for persons who use a deadly weapon to commit crime, the judge ruled that the vehicle driven drunkenly to the extreme injury of the complaining victim was not, in fact, a “deadly weapon.”
“He was on deferred probation for a DWI when he done this,” prosecutor Phillip Smith argued. “That should have been revoked immediately.”
Smith said there was “some minimization” of Laningham’s actions, and little reserve was given to the fact that Laningham is also awaiting trial set for 2024 in Smith County, as well.
“The entire engine is knocked out of Mr. Laningham’s vehicle,” Smith said of the collision caused by the defendant. “It is a catastrophic collision.
“People did not expect one of the drivers to live.”
During Laningham’s trial, defense attorney Gertz argued that the victim’s injuries were not “serious” under Texas law, which requires “injury that creates a substantial risk of death… serious permanent disfigurement …or protracted loss or impairment of a bodily member or organ.”
A puncture of the lung, Gertz argued, as well as broken bones, cuts on a face and fractured ribs treated in the hospital over the course of a five-day stay, didn’t rise to the level of injury presented by prosecutors.
“He does have scars on his face,” Gertz relented, which may leave some question of disfigurement.
“I could straighten it out completely,” the victim said of his arm before the wreck, which doesn’t work like that anymore, even a year-and-a-half later. Before the wreck, he added, “I could do a normal pushup; I could bench press.
“They just cleaned up the bones and the skin and stuff, and they put everything where it was supposed to be.”
Doctors advised, the victim said of his arm, that it is as good as it is going to get – which is still better than it was immediately after the wreck.