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Marble sentenced for felony DUI, eluding
June 11, 2013
Travis Jay Marble, 36, Bonners Ferry, will serve a six-month boot camp program at the Idaho Correctional Institution at Orofino after pleading guilty to his fifth DUI ... and attempting to elude a peace officer just one week later.

If he fails to complete the terms of retained jurisdiction, he faces up to five years in the Idaho State penitentiary.

Marble, with an extensive arrest record going back to 1997, including four DUI convictions in 2001, 2002 and 2003, was stopped driving a 1997 Pontiac on Kaniksu Street by a Bonners Ferry Police officer who noticed that the vehicle had no muffler at 5:10 p.m. February 15.

The next thing he noticed, besides an apparently inebriated driver, was an open can of Blackberry Sparks, an "energy" drink with alcoholic content. Marble, failing a field sobriety test, admitted he'd been drinking since 11:30 a.m.

A breathalyzer test showed a blood alcohol content of .173 percent, well over the .08 limit, and he was formally charged with felony DUI.

To add insult and compound the injury, on February 22, exactly one week later, a Bonners Ferry police officer turned on the lights to pull over a 1994 Toyota Camry, but the driver hit the gas and led the officer on a chase reaching speeds of 75 miles an hour in 35 mph zones.

The rig tore through Bonners Ferry streets, blowing stop signs and traveled down the wrong side of the road, ending up in a ditch just before accessing Highway 95. Then the driver took off running.

He didn't make it far, and Travis Marble spent the next many nights as an unwilling guest of Boundary County.

The open container charge, a misdemeanor, was dismissed, but Marble pled guilty to the two felony counts.

Judge Barbara Buchanan sentenced him last week to one to five years in prison for felony DUI, giving him credit for the four days he served in jail before bonding out. She levied a $500 fine and $585.50 in court costs, and retained jurisdiction, offering him the opportunity for freedom and probation if he can learn and abide the rules at Cottonwood.

She then sentenced him one to three years in prison for eluding, suspended, jurisdiction retained, and credited him with 95 days served in jail following that offense, ordering him to pay an additional $500 fine and $540.50 more in court costs.
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