Warwick Man Sentenced to 30 Months at ACI for Drunken Driving Crash

WAKEFIELD – A Warwick man will serve 30 months at the ACI after pleading no contest in Washington County Superior Court to a charge of drunkenly crashing his car, severely injuring a 17-year-old passenger in the process.

Mario R. Cabral, 21, of 99 Galant Drive, Warwick, pleaded no contest on Feb. 15 to a North Kingstown police charge of driving while intoxicated with a serious injury resulting. In return for his plea, additional charges of driving to endanger and driving while intoxicated were dismissed.

Superior Court Associate Justice Edwin Gale ordered Cabral to serve 30 months at the ACI, which would start on March 4. Upon his release, he would be responsible for completing a 90-month suspended sentence and 90 months of probation.

Cabral was also ordered to surrender his license for two years, to complete alcohol counseling and to pay $2,569 in fines and assessments. Restitution will be determined at a future hearing.

According to North Kingstown police records included in court files, on Aug. 1 shortly after 6 p.m. a dispatcher received several calls of a black BMW rolling over several times while traveling west on Route 138.

On the scene, police conducted interviews with the car’s passengers. A 17-year-old East Greenwich woman told police she was the only sober person in the car, and that the driver – Cabral – had been playing chicken with cars in the opposite direction. She said they had been drinking earlier that day at Scarborough Beach in Narragansett.

Her boyfriend, a 21-year-old Warwick man, told police the same thing. Several other motorists who had pulled over after witnessing the accident gave police similar statements, claiming that the car had passed them by using the breakdown lane, and driving in excess of 80 miles per hour.

Police said Cabral refused to complete a field sobriety test, at which point he was arrested. At police headquarters, breath tests revealed his blood alcohol level to be 0.231 and 0.228.

According to police, the 17-year-old suffered a shattered pelvis that would make any future childbirth difficult. At 21 years old, this is Cabral’s fourth plea:

• In Aug. 2010, he pleaded no contest to a Warwick police charge of possession of marijuana. He was ordered to pay court costs.
• In Aug. 2008, he pleaded no contest to a Warwick police charge of possession of alcohol by a minor. He was ordered to pay an unspecified fine and to surrender his license for 60 days.
• In Sept. 2007, he pleaded no contest to a Warwick police charge of disorderly conduct. He was ordered to pay court costs.

All information is compiled from records at Fourth Division District Court and Washington County Superior Court.