WAILUKU - With three prior drunken driving convictions in the past six years, a Kahului man was sentenced last week to a 30-day jail term for habitually driving under the influence of alcohol.
Aaron MacMillin, 24, also was placed on five years' probation and had his driver's license revoked for three years.
His latest DUI arrest occurred at 11:23 p.m. Oct. 5, 2010, when MacMillin crashed a moped he was operating on West Alu Road near Main Street, according to court records. Police arrived to find MacMillin dazed, bleeding from his face and holding himself up against a guardrail.
His blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.187 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
"That means I could have two Mr. MacMillins before me and both of you would have been found guilty of DUI," 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo told MacMillin. "That's how much alcohol you had in your system."
MacMillin was on probation for drug charges in a 2006 case and his driver's license was revoked following his third DUI conviction a couple of months earlier, Loo said.
"You're just very, very fortunate that no one else got injured or killed," she said.
MacMillin said he was sorry for "drinking and driving for maybe three, four times already."
"But I learned my lesson finally," he said in court Wednesday.
Deputy Public Defender William "Pili" McGrath said MacMillin has a job and hadn't been drinking and driving since his latest arrest.
Deputy Prosecutor Kim Whitworth said she doesn't think that MacMillin understands the severity of his drinking problem.
Several days after the moped crash, he graduated from an intensive outpatient treatment program, indicating he wasn't honest with treatment provi-ders about his DUI arrest, Whitworth said. She said MacMillin dropped out of high school after selling marijuana on campus.
MacMillin had pleaded no contest to habitually driving under the influence of an intoxicant. The felony charge can be brought when someone is arrested for DUI and has three prior DUI convictions within 10 years.
MacMillin's prior convictions followed DUI arrests in September 2006, June 2008 and June 2010.
As part of a plea agreement, the defense and prosecution recommended the mandatory-minimum, 10-day jail term for MacMillin.
In imposing the longer 30-day jail term, Loo said MacMillin had been sentenced to 10 days of jail on weekends for his third DUI conviction.
"Normally, the court needs to show sentences get more severe because you need to learn," Loo said. "He got weekends last time. That didn't seem to work."
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@maui news.com.
