KENDALL COUNTY, Texas – A San Antonio-area woman whose blood alcohol content was nearly four times the legal limit when taken into custody on a sixth DWI charge has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, court records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
Karon Shouse, 58, was sentenced last month in Kendall County District Court, nearly two years after investigators said she drove the wrong way down a street, nearly struck a man with her vehicle and then refused to stop for a Fair Oaks Ranch police officer who attempted to pull her over.
Separate breath specimens provided by Shouse came back with blood alcohol content (BAC) levels of .315 and .308, nearly four times the legal limit to drive in Texas, Kendall County records showed.
Shouse’s arrest occurred while she was on probation for felony DWI in Comal County, records show.
Shouse, who was required to have an ignition interlock device installed on any vehicle she operated as part of the 2019 DWI plea agreement in Comal County, was driving a vehicle without one on the night of her arrest in Kendall County.
Shouse, as part of an Aug. 16 guilty plea in Kendall County, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, $445 in court costs and was given credit for 183 days of time served.
Shouse, who was in the process of being transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice this week, will serve her sentence in a “therapeutic community,” court records show.
A Therapeutic Community program provides treatment for inmates with a history of substance abuse, according to TDCJ’s website.
“The sentence speaks for itself. The judge gave the maximum sentence allowed by law,” Shouse’s attorney, Mark Stevens, said via telephone Tuesday.
History of DWI started in Bexar County
For Shouse, her Kendall County arrest was her sixth time being charged with DWI since 2006, according to records compiled by KSAT Investigates from four area counties.
Shouse racked up three DWI charges in a five-month period in Bexar County, misdemeanor court records obtained by KSAT show.
Shouse was first charged with DWI in Bexar County in February 2006, while under investigation for a separate November 2004 drunk driving incident, according to court records.
Shouse was eventually charged in the initial 2004 case, in April 2006, 17 months after San Antonio police said her vehicle struck a guardrail while driving along Loop 1604 North, according to charging paperwork.
Shouse, who failed a standard field sobriety test and provided a breath specimen with a BAC over .08, suffered a cut to her head during the crash.
Magistrate officials refused to accept her for booking after her arrest and instead sent her to a hospital to be treated, causing the misdemeanor case to be filed against her more than a year later, records show.
Shouse was then charged with DWI-open container and driving while license invalid in July 2006, after officers said a cup of wine was found in her possession while she was driving drunk, court records show.
Shouse was found guilty in April 2007 as part of a negotiated plea that called for the February 2006 charge to be dismissed and for her to plead no contest in the July 2006 case, records show.
Months before signing the plea agreement, however, in January 2007, Shouse was found to have violated the conditions of her pretrial release, after an ignition interlock device determined Shouse had alcohol present on her breath while her vehicle was running.
Shouse was eventually sentenced to 14 months of probation and ordered to pay fines and court costs, records show.
Trouble elsewhere
Two years later, in June 2009, Shouse was booked for felony DWI in Hays County.
Shouse pleaded guilty in January 2010 and was ordered to serve 90 days in jail as part of a work-release program, court records show.
The program, which called for Shouse to be released from jail on weekday mornings and to return at night, was later shortened to 66 days from the original 90, records show.
In August 2018 Shouse was again arrested for felony DWI, this time in Comal County.
In exchange for pleading guilty in September 2019, a ten-year prison sentence was set aside and Shouse was instead given ten years of probation, ordered to serve 960 hours of community service and serve 10 days in the county jail, a copy of the plea agreement shows.
After Shouse’s most recent arrest in Kendall County, she was booked back into the Comal County Jail in November 2021, Comal County officials previously said.
Shouse was transferred from the Comal County Jail to the East Texas Treatment Facility in January 2022, court records show.