Six-time Chesco DUI offender sent to prison

WEST CHESTER — Donald Barr Logan seemed to have turned his life around after a 2003 hit-and-run car crash that seriously injured another person, those who knew him told a Common Pleas Court judge.

However, Logan, 51, of West Goshen, was arrested for another drunkendriving offense — his sixth — after he collided with another car in an oncoming lane on Oct. 10, 2012, in Pocopson.

Logan was sentenced Wednesday to 11½ to 23 months in Chester County Prison, during which time he will be eligible to apply for work release after six months. He will be on probation for three years after being released from prison.

The sentence was less than requested by Assistant District Attorney An- drea M. Cardamore, who wanted Logan to serve his sentence in state prison due to the severity of the crime and his repeated offenses.

Logan’s previous drunken driving arrests occurred in 1981, 1985, 1995, 1999, and 2003. Logan’s bloodalcohol level at the time of his arrest was 0.30 percent — almost four times the state’s 0.08 percent legal limit — and he admitted to the arresting officer that he had continued to drink beer after getting into his car to drive home from a friend’s house.

Cardamore said Logan’s DUI arrest in 2003 is “a crime that should have been a wake-up call for anyone.”

“He hasn’t learned his lesson yet, and therefore we believe he should receive (a state prison) sentencing,” she told Judge Jacqueline C. Cody.

Defense attorney Thomas Howard Ramsay admitted that Logan, a roofer, “has a substantial alcohol problem. He’s aware of his addiction problem and what it’s done to his life.”

Despite that, he said his client had been making substantial steps toward recovery since his 2003 drunken-driving arrest in Florida. He cited factors that caused Logan considerable stress leading up to his 2012 DUI — the death of both his grandfather and father in 2012, which happened within six months of one another, and his mother’s diagnosis of lung cancer — that led him to drink heavily.

Ramsay called on character witnesses and told the court that Logan is “remorseful and serious about sobriety.” He said he has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to deal with his alcoholism.

Michelle Mack, Logan’s girlfriend and one of the character witnesses who spoke on his behalf, said Logan visits his mom’s house three times a week to help out.

“He’s a very hard worker,” she said.

Logan’s boss of eight years, Scott Craven, said, “He’s been a tremendous, loyal person.”

When Logan addressed the court, he choked up while saying, “I am a kindhearted person. I did lose (family members). I know it’s no excuse for what I did.”

He called driving while drunk before the crash “probably one of the worst” decisions he’s made in his life, and he begged the court to “take all this into account” and give him a county sentence so he could continue working.

Before making her decision to keep him from serving time in state prison, Cody said, she weighed the serious nature of the crime and his string of arrests against Logan’s history of improvement during the last eight years.

And she cautioned Logan about his conduct.

“It was a matter of luck” that no one was hurt, Cody said when handing down Logan’s sentence. “You’re either going to kill yourself, someone else, or end up in jail for life if you keep this up. If drinking is worth it to you, stay home. I need to be consistent in holding people responsible for their very serious actions.”