Napa Woman With 7 DUIs Sentenced to Prison

 Ixchel Rollins, 45, of Napa, was sentenced today by the Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite to four years in state prison for felony driving while under the influence (DUI) of alcohol.

 This is her seventh DUI conviction since 2000, her third felony DUI conviction in ten years, and her third prison sentence," said Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch in announcing the sentence.

“Our Vertical DUI Unit, which works closely with law enforcement agencies, including the CHP, was formed with grant money received from the state precisely so that we could hold these repeat DUI offenders accountable and keep them off our roadways," Ravitch said.  "We’ve done that in this case.”

On Feb. 15, 2013, at 2:20 p.m., a California Highway Patrol officer saw Rollins drift almost entirely onto the shoulder of Highway 101.  After making a traffic stop, the officer conducted a DUI investigation and a blood test revealed Rollins’ blood alcohol concentration was 0.27 percent, more than three times higher than the legal limit.

In October 2012, the state Legislature passed the Criminal Justice Realignment Act, which enabled many defendants to serve their prison sentence for a felony DUI in a local jail.  At the time Rollins committed this offense, she had already been sentenced in Napa County pursuant to Realignment on her second felony DUI and given a “local prison” sentence of 18 months jail time and 18 months of mandatory supervision by the probation department. 

With this latest offense, Sonoma County’s recently formed Vertical DUI prosecution unit alleged that Rollins’ had suffered a prior felony DUI conviction and prison sentence, which requires her to serve her current sentence in state prison rather than a local jail. 

In addition to the prison sentence, Rollins driver’s license was revoked for 10 years.  That revocation becomes active after Rollins is released from custody.   The case was prosecuted by DDA Andrew Lukas of the District Attorney’s Vertical DUI Unit.

 Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The California Highway Patrol headed the investigation.