People v. Taylor CA3

FACTS AND HISTORY OF THE PROCEEDINGS

Early on June 12, 2022, California Highway Patrol officers observed defendant driving a car with its taillights off. Defendant made an unlawful U-turn and nearly hit a car, forcing the car’s driver to swerve onto the sidewalk. The officers stopped defendant who admitted to drinking.

1 A Sacramento police officer assumed the investigation and administered field- sobriety tests. The tests confirmed defendant had been driving under the influence of alcohol. Two preliminary alcohol screening tests recorded defendant’s blood-alcohol level at 0.21 percent and 0.198 percent. Arrested and transported to the county jail, defendant submitted to a blood chemical test. A forensic analysis of the sample revealed that defendant’s blood-alcohol level was 0.218 percent. A county criminalist testified that, based on principles of back extrapolation, defendant’s blood-alcohol concentration may have been as high as 0.26 percent when he made the unlawful U-turn. On the first day of trial, defendant pleaded no contest to driving with a suspended or revoked driver’s license, a misdemeanor (count three), and driving a vehicle not equipped with a functioning…