Carbon County court — DUI
Five people entered guilty pleas in Carbon County court on Thursday to driving under the influence and related charges.
Judge Steven R. Serfass accepted the pleas.
Edwing R. Gonzalez Sagastume, 58, of Weissport, was arrested on April 25, 2017, following a vehicle stop along Ninth Street by Lehighton police. A test revealed a 0.12 BAC. As a result of the stop Gonzalez Sagastume was also charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
At the stop, police learned that before leaving his apartment Gonzalez Sagastume locked his three grandchildren in their bedrooms while they were sleeping. Police went to the apartment and found the three children, two age 2 and one age 3, still asleep. He also pleaded to the three endangering counts.
On the DUI charge Serfass placed him on probation for six months as a first offense and ordered he pay a fine of $300. On the endangering charges he was placed on probation for a year on each count, running concurrently with each other but consecutive to the DUI charge. He was also ordered to render a total of 125 hours of community service and zero tolerance was imposed for alcohol use.
Kevin William Gowrie, 44, of Jim Thorpe, was arrested on Feb. 15, 2015, by Jim Thorpe police along Hill Road, after being involved in a crash. A test revealed a 0.19 BAC. He also pleaded to endangering the welfare of a child, as there was a juvenile in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
The plea hearing was conducted by video as Gowrie is an inmate in the state correctional institution at Camp Hill, serving a 16- to 35-year sentence for sexual assault counts.
On the DUI charge Serfass sentenced him to serve 48 hours to 60 months in a state prison, a fine of $1,500 and license suspended for 18 months. On the endangering charge he was sentenced to serve 9 to 36 months in a state prison. The prison terms run concurrent to each other and concurrent to the sentence he is now serving.
Jared Aaron Hauser, 29, of Weissport, entered pleas in three pending cases.
He pleaded to DUI for an incident on Jan. 10, 2016, filed by state police at Lehighton following a vehicle stop along Bridge Street in Weissport. A test revealed the presence of a controlled substance.
He pleaded to one count of possession of a controlled substance for an incident on Aug. 23, 2016, along Bridge Street in Weissport filed by state police. In that case a charge of DUI was dropped. In the third case he pleaded to a summary offense of depositing waste on a roadway. In that case a DUI charge was dropped.
Sentencing was deferred so Hauser can obtain a drug and alcohol evaluation.
Craig Robert Silliman, 24, of Lehighton, was arrested on Aug. 19, 2016, by Lehighton police. A test revealed the presence of a controlled substance.
He was previously placed in the Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition probation program but was revoked from it for violating conditions.
Serfass sentenced him to serve 72 hours to six months in jail, a fine of $1,000, one-year license suspension and render 25 hours of community service.
Silliman is currently an inmate in the county prison awaiting action on a probation violation.
Michelle Lorraine Conti, 37, of Albrightsville, was arrested on Sept. 7, 2017, along Route 534 in Penn Forest Township. She refused a test.
Sentencing was deferred.
Suspension charge
Jasmine Cierra Hunsicker, 21, of Lehighton, pleaded to one count each of driving under suspension, DUI related, and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was arrested on June 3, 2017, by Lehighton police along the Sgt. Stanley Hoffman Boulevard. A DUI of a controlled substance charge was dropped.
Sentencing was deferred so she could apply for placement in the county’s Intermediate Punishment Program — house arrest.
Each defendant sentenced must also pay court costs of about $1,000 and pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on probation or parole.
