David Scott Nowicki Missouri Cases

David Scott Nowicki appealed his conviction for driving while intoxicated, specifically challenging his sentencing as a chronic offender. The circuit court had found he had four prior intoxication-related traffic offenses (IRTOs) and sentenced him to five years. The Missouri Supreme Court vacated the judgment and remanded for resentencing, holding that the state's evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that three of Nowicki's prior convictions qualified as IRTOs under the current definition of "driving."

David Scott Nowicki appealed his conviction for driving while intoxicated as a chronic offender, arguing insufficient evidence to prove his prior convictions qualified for sentence enhancement. The appellate court affirmed his convictions and sentences for failure to drive on the right half of the roadway and operating without financial responsibility. However, it reversed the chronic offender conviction and sentence, vacating it and remanding for resentencing as a class B misdemeanor. The court held that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Nowicki's prior offenses involved "driving" as defined at the time of the present offense, as required by State v. Shepherd, and that MULES records alone were insufficient for this purpose.