Repeat DUI Offender Sentenced for Crash That Killed Woman, Dog

A convicted drunken driver who mowed down an 87-year- old Temecula woman and her small dog as the two stood on a sidewalk was sentenced today to 15 years to life in prison.

Harry Shane Scholes, 58, pleaded guilty on Oct. 21 to gross vehicular manslaughter and sentence-enhancing allegations of inflicting great bodily injury and having multiple driving under the influence convictions on his record. In exchange for his plea to the manslaughter count, the Riverside County District Attorney's Office dropped a second-degree murder charge.

Superior Court Judge Albert Wojcik certified the plea deal today and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense. Scholes will not be eligible for parole until he serves at least 85 percent of his time behind bars, or 12 years, nine months.

The defendant killed Charlotte Boyce and her pet dachshund on July 18, 2011 while driving his 2007 Ford Ranger pickup truck without a license, according to prosecutors.

Before climbing behind the wheel, Scholes had taken high doses of the painkiller hydrocodone, the antidepressant Cymbalta and various other prescription medications, said Deputy District Attorney David Tahan.

The prosecutor wrote in a trial brief filed before the plea agreement that Scholes was so medicated that he "could not remember the path he traveled" to go home after leaving a Temecula grocery store.

Scholes had four prior DUI convictions -- all misdemeanors -- resulting in the loss of driving privileges, according to court records. One of his earlier convictions also led to the installation of a breathalyzer device in his pickup that detects alcohol and will prevent a vehicle from starting if the person using it is under the influence.

Scholes told sheriff's deputies that he had tried to use the device -- which was not designed to recognize the presence of drugs -- and it was unresponsive.

According to court papers, around 8:40 on the morning of the crash, Boyce was chatting with a neighbor under a tree on Via Cordoba Drive with her dog when the defendant came weaving down the street. Because the victim had her back turned to the pickup, she never saw it coming, though her neighbor did and jumped out of the way as Scholes steered onto the sidewalk and slammed into Boyce and her dachshund, Tahan said.

The woman was rushed to a hospital with catastrophic injuries and died two hours later. Her dog died at the scene.

According to the trial brief, Scholes stopped his pickup after plowing into several trash cans, but he told witnesses and deputies that he was not aware he had run over a person until several minutes later when he saw the victim lying on the ground.

—City News Service