Steven Earl Trout, 58, of Jackson has racked up 13 convictions or guilty pleas of driving while intoxicated since 1986, and on Monday he was sentenced to 10 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, the maximum allowed.
"It's the most I've seen," Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh said of the number of drunken-driving incidents by one person. "Some people may look at this as this is just a DWI; nobody was injured. With 12 priors, I don't know how somebody hasn't been injured. The goal is public safety."
Limbaugh described the circumstances of Trout's Aug. 18 car accident in Cape Girardeau County as miraculous a major injury was avoided.
Trout overturned his vehicle after overcorrecting on Highway 177 and veered off the road into a ditch, a witness reported in Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper Jeffrey McCullough's probable-cause statement.
Trout then left the scene on foot and left his passenger in the vehicle, the report stated. The passenger was not injured.
McCullough wrote he found Trout lying in tall grass one-tenth of a mile from the crash.
Trout had been found guilty of DWI in Stoddard County in 2010, 2007, 2005, 2004, 1997, 1993, 1992, 1990, 1987 and 1986. Trout had one DWI in Cape Girardeau County.
bkleine@semissourian.com
(573) 388-3844
Pertinent address: MO-177, East of Little Country Store, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
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