Supreme Court: DWI homicide is a nonviolent offense by law

The state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that state law allows inmates convicted of homicide by vehicle to earn good-time credits that can reduce the time they spend in prison by half.

The state’s highest court overturned a ruling by a district court judge that classified a DWI homicide as a serious violent offense (SVO), which required a woman convicted in 2019 to serve at least 85% of her prison sentence.

Justices ruled in a unanimous opinion that the state’s Earned Meritorious Deductions Act (EDMA) classified DWI homicide as a nonviolent offense, which allowed the inmate to accrue 30 days of credit against her sentence for each 30 days of good behavior she served.

The ruling came in the case of Julianna Montaño, 29, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to homicide by vehicle, driving while intoxicated, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Montaño was leaving the Route 66 Casino in December 2017 when she tailgated, passed, then cut off a vehicle on Interstate 40, causing a rollover crash that killed Patricia Urban, according to a criminal complaint. Montaño told deputies she didn’t remember leaving the casino.

Montaño was released from custody in May 2023, court records show.

Justices ruled that a 2nd Judicial District Court judge misapplied the legal doctrine of absurdity, which allows a judge to change the meaning of a statute to avoid an absurd result.

“We conclude that the classification made by the Legislature in the EMDA is not absurd and that the district court erred,” Justice Michael E. Vigil wrote for the court, adding that it is not a judge’s prerogative, but the Legislature’s, “to classify DWI homicide as a serious violent offense through the legislative process.”

Lawmakers changed the state’s vehicular homicide law in 2016 making the offense a second-degree felony punishable by 15 years in prison. Before 2016, vehicular homicide was a third-degree felony with a maximum six-year sentence.

But lawmakers left unchanged the state’s EDMA law, which does not list second-degree DWI homicide as one of some two dozen crimes classified as serious violent offenses. The SVO designation gives judges the discretion to sentence convicts as nonviolent or serious violent offenders.

Montaño appealed the district judge’s ruling to the state Court of Appeals, which reversed the lower court decision. The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the appellate court ruling.