LEAGUE CITY, Texas — A jury Thursday began deliberating punishment on the intoxication manslaughter conviction of a man who had two prior drunken driving convictions, court officials said.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated about four hours Wednesday and Thursday before finding Anthony Lester, 44, guilty in the Aug. 15, 2007, drunken-driving death of Donna Lee Banduch-Lawson, a court official said.
Galveston County prosecutors Lester Blizzard and Rebecca Russell and Lester’s defense attorney, Michael Pena, presented closing arguments Thursday afternoon in Lester’s punishment hearing.
The results of that hearing, in which a friend and neighbor testified on Lester’s behalf, weren’t immediately known.
During questioning of two of Lester’s witnesses, Blizzard asked whether they were aware of Lester’s two previous convictions for driving while intoxicated and whether they knew another drunken-driving arrest was reduced to reckless driving.
Both men testified they never knew Lester to have a drinking problem.
Testimony in Lester’s trial in Judge Lonnie Cox’s 56th District Court began Tuesday and revealed how police found Banduch-Lawson dead at the scene.
A witness testified Lester abruptly entered oncoming traffic along a two-lane, rural stretch of FM 646 just west of South Shore Boulevard.
The force of the head-on collision, in which police estimated Lester’s car traveled at 88 mph, crushed the engine compartment of Banduch-Lawson’s car, trapping the Dickinson resident inside.
First responders were unable to free her from the wreckage to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation, testimony revealed.
League City police officer Jake Busard testified Banduch-Lawson’s car, which was traveling about 55 mph, came to a complete stop and was propelled backward at 27 mph. "That change of speed in two-tenths of a second is not survivable," Busard said.
Lester’s blood, taken about three hours after the crash, measured an alcohol percentage nearly three times the legal limit of .08 percent, testimony revealed.
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