Cataldo man gets 40-year sentence after 8th DUI
Gayton
A Cataldo man was sentenced to prison Monday after he was found guilty of felony DUI.
Aurelio Ralph Gayton, 50, was sentenced to a 40-year prison sentence with parole eligibility after 15 years by First Judicial District Judge Barry McHugh.
The charge stems from an incident Oct. 20 when an Idaho State Police trooper observed Gayton driving the wrong way down an Interstate 90 off ramp and pulled Gayton over as he was preparing to drive the wrong way on the divided highway, a press release said.
Gayton refused to complete field sobriety evaluations or to provide a breath sample, according to the release. After obtaining a search warrant, the trooper collected a sample of Gayton’s blood revealing a blood alcohol concentration of 0.210 — more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
Having previously been convicted of three felony offenses, Gayton was also convicted of being a persistent violator, which mandates that a prison sentence be no less than 5 years but allows a court to extend a sentence by up to life.
The latest incident was Gayton’s eighth lifetime conviction for DUI. Gayton was first convicted of DUI in 1999 and then twice again in 2005. Gayton was convicted of felony DUI in 2008 and then again in 2011.
In 2017, Gayton was convicted of felony DUI and persistent violator following a two-day jury trial in a case where Gayton crashed into another vehicle while driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.238, which is nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08, the release said.
Prior to being sentenced, however, Gayton was again arrested and convicted of felony DUI in a case where he was driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.176.
In October of 2017, Gayton was sentenced by Idaho Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Meyer, then a Kootenai County District judge.
Gayton was given a 15-year prison sentence and was released on parole after serving six years and was on parole at the time of the Oct. 20 incident.