Court rejects Little's request to throw out felony DUI charge

ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a St. Louis Rams defensive lineman's request to have a felony drunken driving charge thrown out, declining comment on Leonard Little's claim that the law behind the count is unconstitutional.

Little's attorneys had argued that under Missouri law, a jury -- not as a judge has done -- should have decided whether Little is a persistent offender, given his previous conviction in a 1998 drunken-driving wreck that killed a woman.

The prosecutor, Mark Bishop, countered in legal filings that a St. Louis County judge and the Missouri Court of Appeals have rejected Little's claims, and that Missouri's high court should do the same.

Among other things, Little argued that U.S. Supreme Court rulings since 2000 relating to a defendant's constitutional right to a jury trial applied in his case.

A Supreme Court ruling four years ago, hardly noticed at the time, overturned state sentencing rules in New Jersey that allowed a judge to lengthen a criminal sentence based on facts never presented to a jury. The court said then, and has repeated in other cases since, that the Constitution's guarantee of a jury trial means that judges alone cannot do the work of juries.

In June, the nation's high court, in a 5-4 ruling, held in a Washington state case that juries must decide any matter that can lengthen a sentence beyond the maximum set out in state sentencing guidelines. To do otherwise violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, the court majority said.

Although that ruling specifically applied only to Washington state, prosecutors, judges, law professors and others said it could mean drastic changes for numerous other states and the federal court system because they have similar guidelines.

Missouri law was amended in 2001 to allow for persistent offender prosecution.

Attorneys on both sides of Little's appeal to the Supreme Court declined comment Tuesday, citing a voluntary gag order in the case.

In court filings, Bishop argued that a state Supreme Court ruling in Little's favor could affect a dozen other statutes, including various sex abuse laws in which previous misdemeanor convictions make new charges felonies.

Little, 30, is to be tried in St. Louis County on March 28 on charges that he was driving under the influence and speeding when stopped by police shortly before 4 a.m. April 24 along Interstate 64 in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue. Police said he was traveling 78 mph in a 55-mph zone.

Police say he failed three field sobriety tests.

In 1998, Little pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a St. Louis traffic crash that killed Susan Gutweiler of St. Louis County. Little's blood-alcohol level was nearly twice Missouri's legal limit.

Little completed a three-month jail sentence, 1,000 hours of community service and four years of probation. He also was suspended without pay for the first half of the 1999 season.

Little went to his first Pro Bowl after last season, when he was fifth in the NFL with 12 1/2 sacks. This season, Little leads the Rams with 5 1/2 sacks, with his 61-yard fumble return accounting for the Rams' only score in Sunday's 31-7 loss at Arizona.

The NFL has said Little, if convicted, could face another lengthy suspension from the league under terms of its substance-abuse policy.

The NFL's guideline for a drunken-driving conviction is a fine of half a regular-season game check up to $20,000, absent aggravating circumstances. Subsequent violations result in increased discipline as determined by the commissioner.

In Ladue, Little would have been treated as a first-time offender, but St. Louis County prosecutors are pressing the case as a felony, accusing him as a persistent offender.

The charge of driving while intoxicated normally is a misdemeanor. If convicted of the felony, Little could face up to four years in prison.