Bill calling for prison in violent DUI offenses gets hearing

With the anniversary of her daughter’s death at the hands of a wrong-drunk driver a few days away, Paula Montanucci made her case before the Legislature on Tuesday that those who kill or injure people while drunk deserve to spend time in a cell.

Montanucci and Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson testified at the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of Senate Bill 412, which would require the Department of Corrections to house the most egregious DUI offenders in prison.

Sen. Robin Titus, R-Yerington, is sponsoring the bill and appeared before the committee on Tuesday with Jackson and Montanucci.

Fallon Montanucci was only two weeks away from receiving her bachelor’s degree as she served as an Airman 1^st Class guarding nuclear missile silos in Great Falls, Mont., when she came home on leave.

“We’d been trying to get her home for four months, and then right before Easter we were able to,” Montanucci told the committee. “She was at that point when kids are ready to launch. She was amazing and ready to take that next step.”

She recounted what happened on the morning of April 23, 2022, when six deputies pulled up to her house. She was told that the highway was still closed as a result of the horrific collision that claimed Fallon’s life and severely injured daughter Avalon.

“There was not an ounce of alcohol in my daughter,” Montanucci said of the collision. “She did everything right.”

That included steering to the right, so her last act was to save her sister.

Matthew Premo, who was traveling at 100 mph north in the southbound lanes of Highway 395, was sentenced to 16-40 years in prison after admitting to driving under the influence causing death and substantial bodily harm. He is serving his sentence at the Carlin Conservation Camp near Elko, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections.

“Justice was done for her in Douglas County, but as soon as it went into some sort of system, there was no justice,” she told senators. “These are our children who are getting killed. These are our parents getting killed. These are innocent people that are doing everything right. Let’s see a little justice. I need a little justice for my daughters.”

Under Nevada Law, DUI offenders are housed in minimum security facilities regardless of how bad the circumstances of the offense.

Department of Corrections Director Kirk Widmar said that there are 200 DUI offenders admitted to the prisons each year. There are 22 that the new law would affect.

In Nevada, a third DUI in seven years is a felony, but most offenders undergo a 2-5-year treatment program that allows them to avoid the mandatory prison term of up to six years.

Jackson said the law wouldn’t affect those DUI offenders who didn’t injure anyone, since the law that allows them to be in minimum security within four years of release would still be in place.