Sam Hunt Pleads Guilty, Sentenced on DUI Charges
Sam Hunt has pleaded guilty and received sentencing in his 2019 DUI case. Nashville's Tennessean newspaper reports that Hunt will serve 48 hours in an "alternative sentencing facility" after pleading guilty to two counts of DUI on Wednesday (Aug. 18).
Hunt entered the plea at a hearing in July. He received a sentence of 11 months and 29 days, but all of that time will be suspended except 48 hours, which he will serve in the DUI Education Centers.
The country singer will also be required to complete an alcohol safety course, and he'll lose his driver's license for a year. He'll be required to have an interlock installed in his car when his license is reinstated.
Police arrested Hunt in East Nashville in the early morning hours of Nov. 21, 2019, after they responded to a report about a vehicle that was driving the wrong way down a street. A responding officer said Hunt smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and tried to give his credit card when asked to show his license. An arrest warrant stated that Hunt's blood-alcohol level was .173, more than double Tennessee's legal limit of .08. Officers found two empty beers in Hunt's car, and he admitted to drinking alcohol "recently."
"I put myself in a position by being out, seeing friends at a show, leaving my phone in an Uber," he said in an interview with HITS Daily Double. "We’d Uber'd all night, then went back to a friend’s house, had some pizza. I fell asleep on the couch, woke up groggy. I should've been more conscious, but I wasn’t. So I take responsibility."
A grand jury indicted Hunt on charges of DUI, DUI per se and having an open container in December of 2020, more than a year after the country singer was charged with DUI and having an open container. Prosecutors dropped the open container charge as part of a plea deal.
He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DUI charges on Wednesday in Davidson County Circuit Court. According to the Tennessean, Hunt could have served more than two years in prison if he had been convicted at trial.
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