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Antoine Lamont Winstead, a 30-year-old Chase City man, was sentenced recently in Lunenburg Circuit Court to an active prison term of two and a half years on convictions of Felony DWI Third Offense within Five Years and a Felony Driving Revoked according to a release from the Lunenburg Commonwealths Attorney Office.

Winstead was sentenced to five years in prison on each with all suspended except the two and a half years to serve. He was fined $1,000, and his privilege to obtain a license was revoked indefinitely.

According to Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Clement, the defendant pleaded not guilty. The trial was presented to Circuit Judge J. William Watson by Assistant prosecutor Baxter Stegall on Sept. 10. Evidence was presented that the incident leading to his arrest arose on Jan. 25, about noon. The release stated, “State Trooper K.H. Pearce responded to a call of an accident and found that Winstead had gone into a ditch at 4371 Fort Mitchell Road in Lunenburg County. The Trooper testified that Winstead said his transmission had failed and that he was backing the vehicle up the road to a church. The trooper testified in detail as the indicators that proved Winstead was under the influence including failing three field sobriety tests, the PBT test, and finally having a result of 0.18 on the breathalyzer test. This was more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. He said he had consumed eight beers. He had admitted to the trooper that he was the driver, but later in court said someone else was driving, but could not get him to come to court.”

The sentencing occurred Nov. 19. Clement argued for the two years and eight months, citing Winstead’s two prior convictions of driving under the influence in Mecklenburg County in 2014 and 2015, and his prior convictions of Burglary, Possession of Illegal Drug, three misdemeanor convictions, nine traffic offenses, and two prior failures to complete supervised probation. The Sentencing Guidelines recommended a mid-point of two years and eight months.

In addition to his sentence and fine, the defendant must be of good behavior for 10 years, complete supervised probation for one year, abstain from alcohol and illegal drugs, and suffer an indefinite loss of license.