The Utah Supreme Court has reversed a ruling by the Utah Court of Appeals, which last year found that a law making it a second-degree felony to cause death or serious injury while driving with a measurable amount of drugs in one’s system was unconstitutional.
The January 2016 ruling by the Court of Appeals faulted the state’s measurable amount law — which does not require proof of impairment — because the punishment is harsher than for the third-degree felony crimes of DUI with serious injury, and automobile homicide, where drivers are deemed to be incapacitated.
“ ... there does not appear to be any rational basis for punishing individuals who have ‘any measurable amount’ of controlled substance in their bodies more harshly than individuals who have an incapacitating amount of the substance in their bodies,” according to the appeals court decision.“
Accordingly, the appeals court sent Thomas Randall Ainsworth’s case — in connection with a fatal 2011 Christmas Eve crash — back to the district court with instructions to enter his convictions as lesser third-degree felonies, which are punishable by up to five years in prison, and re-sentence him at that level.
Ainsworth, now 61, had been scheduled to be resentenced in 3rd District Court on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Utah Supreme Court in September reversed the appeals court ruling, and reinstated Ainsworth’s second-degree felony convictions and his sentence of three consecutive one-to-15-year terms at the Utah State Prison.
The high court opinion, penned by Justice Thomas Lee, notes that while the measurable drug law does not require a showing of impairment, the drug in question must be a Schedule I or II drug.
Schedule I drugs are those with no current accepted medical treatment use in the United States, including heroin, LSD ecstasy and marijauna. Schedule II drugs are those with a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence, including morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl.
The state’s DUI provision, on the other hand, is triggered by the use of alcohol or any drug, Lee noted.
“… the legislature obviously deemed that difference significant, “ Lee wrote. “It was so concerned about the use of Schedule I or II drugs by drivers that it deemed that element enough to bump the offense level to a second-degree felony (even in cases in which there is no showing of actual impairment).”
On Dec. 24, 2011, Ainsworth was driving his Chevrolet Suburban west on 9000 South, when he drove over a median near 1000 West and crashed head-on into another vehicle.
A passenger in the other car, 18-month-old Colum Pack, was killed; his 3-year-old brother, Finn, and the boys’ parents, Ryan and Raquel Pack, were all severely injured.
Ainsworth told police he had dropped his cell phone on the floor and was reaching for it when he lost control of his SUV. Following the crash, Ainsworth’s blood tested positive for methamphetamine.
He was charged in 3rd District Court with three counts of driving with a measurable amount of a controlled substance and negligently causing death or serious bodily injury, each a second-degree felony.
Ainsworth pleaded guilty as charged, but reserved the right to appeal the constitutionality of the statute.
Ainsworth has a tentative parole hearing date of March 2027.
Editor’s note: Jennifer Napier-Pearce, the wife of state Supreme Court Justice John Pearce, is the editor of The Salt Lake Tribune.