Torres sentenced for aggravated DWI

Victor Torres

ALBANY — Victor Torres, 36, of Guilderland, was sentenced on April 16 to two to six years in state prison for aggravated driving while intoxicated, the Albany County District Attorney’s Office announced in a release.

Judge Thomas A. Breslin also ruled that, after Torres is released from prison, his driver’s license will be revoked for a minimum of 18 months, with the length of time to be determined by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles; an ignition interlock device must be installed in his car for three years; he must participate in a victim-impact panel; and he must pay a $2,000 fine.

An interlock device prevents a driver who has been drinking from starting his car. The driver must blow into the device, which can detect alcohol and keep the car from starting. Albany County District Attorney David Soares announced in 2017 that his office would no longer accept any plea deals for charges of circumvention of ignition interlock devices.

Torres pleaded guilty on Feb. 20 to aggravated driving while intoxicated, a felony, and to circumvention of an ignition interlock device, a misdemeanor. He also pleaded guilty to a violation of felony probation.

Breslin also sentenced Torres on April 16 to one year in Albany County’s jail for the circumvention of an interlock device and to one to three years in state prison for violating the terms of his probation, to be served concurrently with the sentence of two to six years in state prison for aggravated DWI.

The release from the DA’s Office outlined the events of the case this way:

On Jan. 25, at about 10:33 p.m., Guilderland Police responded to a call for a domestic dispute in the area of Guilderland’s Heritage Road. They found Torres driving away and stopped his car. He showed signs of intoxication and failed field sobriety tests. When his blood was tested about an hour after the stop, Torres registered a blood-alcohol content of .19 percent. The legal limit is below .08 percent.

According to his Jan. 25 arrest report, the complainant had been in pain after the domestic incident and had been taken to Albany Medical Center while Torres had been charged with four felonies and eight misdemeanors, including assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

In 2017, Torres had been convicted of a felony aggravated DWI charge; his license was revoked and he was required to have an ignition interlock device installed in his vehicle, according to the District Attorney’s Office. At the time of the January 2019 incident, the release said, Torres was driving while his license was revoked and without an ignition interlock device.

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