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Appeal Rejected In Escambia County Wrong Way DUI Manslaughter Conviction
August 17, 2018
A state appellate court Thursday rejected an appeal by a former Navy flight instructor who was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison in a DUI manslaughter case that included allegations he drove the wrong way on I-10 in Escambia County.
Robert Koroly, who served as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Pensacola, entered a plea to the DUI manslaughter charge in the 2010 death of 54-year-old Johnny Robinson.
But after serving four years of a 13.25-year prison sentence, Koroly filed an appeal, arguing that he had received ineffective representation because his attorney had not retained an accident-reconstruction expert, according to Thursday’s ruling by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal.
The ruling said Koroly had a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit when he drove the wrong way on I-110 just south of Fairfield Drive and collided head-on with a vehicle driven by Robinson. Another vehicle then crashed into Robinson’s vehicle. Koroly’s blood alcohol level was .16.
In the appeal, Koroly argued that an accident-reconstruction expert could have provided information about improper signage and poor weather conditions. An Escambia County circuit judge turned down the arguments, and the appeals court followed suit.
“Had Koroly obtained a more comprehensive accident reconstruction, he argues he would have advanced a defense at trial that it was not his intoxicated driving that caused the crash, but rather the defective road signs and poor weather conditions that caused him to drive the wrong way onto the interstate. But evidence of poor road conditions and inadequate signage would have had very little probative value in light of the overwhelming evidence of Koroly’s intoxication and the extremely low threshold for proving causation under the DUI manslaughter statute,” said the 14-page opinion, written by appeals-court Judge Lori Rowe and joined fully by Judge M. Kemmerly Thomas. Chief Judge Brad Thomas concurred in the result but did not sign on to the opinion.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
10 Responses to “Appeal Rejected In Escambia County Wrong Way DUI Manslaughter Conviction”
Hate to break this to all of you but just over 13 years is a lot more than what some other people have gotten for the same offense. I’ve read plenty of articles on folks who have drove drunk and killed other people and the amount of jail time the received/served is almost always under 13 years. In one case, that “affluenza” teen only got 10 years probation for killing 4 people while driving drunk. I honestly can’t blame Mr. Koroly for appealing his sentence. I lived in the Escambia county area for 3 years and I’ll tell you that the roads and highways are not labelled the way they should be. Would it have made a difference in his case? Maybe, maybe not. Another thing is he committed the crime in 2010 and was sentenced in 2011. He has actually served 8 years of his sentence. He filled the appeal in 2015 but just got the result now. And lastly, he did accept responsibility as he pled guilty to the original charges.
As a flight instructor he should have known he shouldn’t have been drinking and driving in bad weather when he was unaware of his bearings.
Agree with everyone else. Zero integrity. He should have had that 4 years he’s already served added only his sentence again since he didn’t use them wisely and take full accountability! Coward. Poor weather conditions and defective road signs?? Even HYPOTHETICALLY that was the case, doesn’t have the rest of us driving down the wrong dang side of I10! Especially since you’re a local AND military-you should be aware and familiar of the local highways enough to notice you’re GOING THE WRONG WAY. I don’t know, maybe adding all the alcohol has something to do with it??
A complete disgrace to the uniform he once wore.
his failure to take ownership of his problem should get him another 5 years. He obviously has no soul to think he can blame HIS problem on someone else being killed. Flight instructor too……..wow, you would hope for more integrity there too. Shame to him.
.16 bac and the person thinks that the trial court made an error. Thank you appeals court, but sadly taxpayers are paying for one more dope and mope with around 3/4 of a million dollars of taxpayer money to house and feed this man. A simple ignition interlock never would have let this flight instructor ruin the lives of the victim and his family. We have cars which park themselves, drive themselves, and avoid collisons through a central CPU, yet for a couple hundred dollars for an ignition interlock will not be installed because the Alcohol industry and Restaurant industry make profit selling alcohol and need to let impaired drivers get into cars for them to make a profit. It is with much sadness that this national tragedy continues to impact innocent families as the evil lobby continues to get their way, as society has once again failed to address a problem where 90% of DUI deaths could be lowered with a simple mandated safety feature to go along with air bags, shatterproof windshields, brake lights, and air bags………No politician has the courage to solve the problem, but would rather pass huge budgets for after the fact caring for non violent dopes and mopes thinking jail is a deterrent to a drunk…..it is not…..they are invincible when drunk, and reason and rational choices have left the building.
..sentence should have been 30 years…drunk drivers are playing Russian roulette with innocent citizens…
a drunken loser- do your time, you killed a man.. live with that
13 years? he got off easy.\
IMHO the chair.
anyway… Alcohol ,,,,,the devils drink claims another
So he refuses to accept responsibility for what he did, and instead wants to blame signs the roadsigns? He needs some more time to think about his actions and the consequences thereof.