'Nuf said...
Driver to be tried as habitual felonA man arrested after a fatal wreck in Durham has a history of nearly 100 chargesMatt Dees, Staff WriterDURHAM - One of the first of many charges to be filed against Shawn Maurice Powell was a citation for failing to stop at a red light in 1994.
He paid a $25 fine, but that was only the beginning of Powell's life of crime that, police say, culminated last week in the death of Lisa Knelson.
Powell's most recent brush with the law matches that harbinger 12 years ago -- he is charged with running a red light and striking Knelson's car, killing her almost instantly.
Only this time, $25 won't be nearly enough to get Powell back on the streets.
The Durham County District Attorney's Office plans to try him as a habitual felon, a classification that could greatly lengthen his prison sentence if Powell is convicted in Knelson's death.
Though Powell has served prison time for some of the nearly 100 charges he has faced in the past dozen years, Knelson's family and some residents have asked why someone with that kind of rap sheet wasn't more harshly punished.
"Assuredly, it seems ridiculous that someone with [Powell's record] can freely roam the streets creating havoc at will," Lise Fondren, Knelson's sister-in-law, wrote in an e-mail message.
Powell has been convicted of at least six felonies and 10 misdemeanors. Many of those convictions were plea deals that consolidated numerous charges into a single sentence.
He has served a total of about three years in prison or jail over the past 12 years for the offenses.
Most recently, he was convicted in Ohio of first-degree sexual offense with a child in June 2005, for which he received probation, records show.
One of the reasons Powell has not done more time is that his crimes have almost all been low-level felonies or misdemeanors -- car theft, possession of stolen goods, assault, hit-and-run.
The habitual-felon classification is designed to punish repeat offenders more harshly for even petty felonies.
Assistant District Attorney Dave Shick is heading the case against Powell and is still analyzing the record.
He said he is not sure yet whether he can get a habitual-felon classification for Powell, but Powell's record indicates that he qualifies. Here's how the habitual-felon system works:
Someone has to have been convicted of felonies on three separate occasions to be sentenced as a habitual felon.
If someone gets arrested and charged with more than one felony and is convicted of all of them on the same day, that only counts as one conviction.
After the third separate felony conviction, a fourth raises the stakes.
The jury in the fourth case doesn't learn until after rendering a verdict that the defendant is eligible for habitual-felon status.
Once the jury finds the defendant guilty, it is asked to hear evidence on whether the person should be sentenced as such.
If the jury agrees, the judge increases the sentence according to court guidelines.
Four of Powell's six felony convictions occurred separately, the last one the sexual abuse charge in Ohio. He fits the legal criteria.
Knelson's family members want to see Powell punished. They just wish he had been punished more before he allegedly slammed a stolen car into their loved one.
"The thing that hurts most, that makes this wound so raw, is the randomness and finality of the consequences of his actions," Fondren wrote.
"If justice had been served in any of a handful of his convictions, surely the consequences of his actions would have been the opposite of random, they would have been predicted, by the court system and even the criminal himself."
