Seven-time drunken driver gets 13 months

PALMER -- A Wasilla man arrested hours before the state's new drunken-driving law changed was sentenced Tuesday to 13 months in prison for his seventh DWI conviction.

Robert Noden, 53, was given a two-year sentence with one year suspended on the DWI charge, and a six-month sentence with five suspended on a driving with a revoked license conviction. His license is revoked for three years and 90 days and he must pay a $5,000 fine.

Noden was arrested July 3 on this seventh DWI after colliding with Charles Thompson of Palmer on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

No one was injured but Thompson's vehicle received $500 damage, according to court documents.

July 3 happened to be the last day before the new DWI laws went into effect. On July 4, it became illegal to blow higher than .08 on a blood-alcohol breath test, new sentencing laws required more than the minimum sentence for repeat offenders, and the 10-year rule stating that a person's DWI record is erased after that amount of time was no longer in effect.

According to police records, Noden was arrested with a .262 blood-alcohol level, and this represented his third DWI offense in the previous five years. Since he made it before the July 4 laws went into effect, he could not be charged with the lifetime DWI offenses, and the court could only look at the previous 10 years, said Palmer Assistant District Attorney Bill Estelle, who originally prosecuted the case.

But Noden showed up for his sentencing Dec. 7 "so drunk that we terminated proceedings," said Palmer Superior Court Judge Eric Smith as he asked the attorneys to consider whether to postpone the sentencing.

Noden was taken from the court and registered a .167 in a portable breath test (PBT), according to court documents. He was placed in Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

Estelle objected to imposing the sentence to which he had agreed prior to Noden's sodden appearance in court. In a no-contest plea agreement, the state had accepted recommending the minimum felony DWI sentence of 120 days in jail plus 30 days in jail for driving with a revoked license, Estelle said.

Noden was still on probation for a 1998 DWI, driving on a revoked license at the time of his July 3 arrest. He was released on bail and placed in court-approved, third-party custody with orders that he could not drink alcohol.

In light of what happened, Estelle told Judge Smith he "rued the day" he had made that plea agreement. In December, Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak and Estelle recommended five years in jail with two suspended for the felony DWI, and one concurrent year in jail for the revoked license.

"When he shows up drunk at his own sentencing, it doesn't give me a whole lot of hope for his rehabilitation," Estelle told Smith.

At Tuesday's proceedings, Smith agreed to the state's stiffer recommendation of one year to serve plus a month for the revoked license violation. Noden's new attorney, Eugene Cyrus, told Smith that Noden is currently at the Salvation Army's Adult Rehabilitation center and is successfully undergoing treatment.

Palmer Assistant District Attorney Dave Berry said the sentence the state recommended essentially imposes the amount of time that Noden would have received if he were arrested after the new law's effective date.

Noden made few comments, saying that he had a hangover on the day he came for his December sentencing and that he may have only appeared drunk.

Smith said Noden needs to change his drinking behavior or it will only cause further damage to his life. "If treatment works, that's great. If it doesn't, it's tragic," he told Noden. "If you don't get this problem fixed, it will kill you."

Noden is to finish six months of treatment already started at the Salvation Army's program.