Collins v. State, A14A0304, Court of Appeals of Georgia, June 17, 2014. Camela Noelle Collins was found guilty of DUI Less Safe, DUI Per Se (having a blood or breath level over 0.08 grams within three hours of driving), and failure to maintain lane after a stipulated bench trial.  The point of the stipulated bench trial was to allow Defendant to appeal the Rockdale County State Court’s denial of  Defendant’s motions surrounding the Intoxilyzer 5000 source code including the certificate of materiality to obtain witnesses from CMI, Inc in Owensboro, Kentucky, and Constitutional rights that were violated by the failure to produce the Intoxilyzer 5000 computer source code.

The appealed issues involved the DUI per se count which was based on the breath tests.  The Court initially found the Defendant guilty and sentenced on the DUI per se and merged the DUI less safe, so Defendant was only convicted on the DUI per se allowing an appeal of the breath test. The Trial Court came back later 20 days later and amended the sentence convicting on the DUI less safe and merging the DUI per se, therefore, leaving nothing to appeal. Because the DUI per se was merged appeal was dismissed as moot. You’ve been punked! Next time just have a jury trial and if the jury finds your client not guilty on the DUI less safe and guilty on the DUI per se then you have a good appeal or get the Trial Court’s word that they will only sentence on the DUI per se if you can trust’em.

-Author: George Creal

Atlanta DUI | DUI Lawyer Atlanta