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Posted on January 28, 2025 in DUI
A third DUI in Arizona occurs when you already have two prior DUIs on your record within 84 months. When you are charged with a third DUI during this period, you will face a felony charge in the form of aggravated DUI.
An aggravated DUI conviction in Arizona can lead to serious consequences for you that can last for years after you complete your sentence. If you are being charged with a third DUI, call the Rosenstein Law Group immediately at (480) 248-7666 to talk with an experienced Arizona DUI defense attorney and set up a free consultation to discuss your legal options.
Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) 28-1383 is the state’s aggravated felony DUI statute.
The main distinction about aggravated DUI in Arizona is that unlike other DUI offenses, including extreme DUIs and super extreme DUIs, an aggravated DUI is a felony-level charge rather than a misdemeanor.
You can be charged with aggravated DUI in multiple ways. Here, we focus on what happens when you are charged with aggravated DUI because you already have two prior misdemeanor DUI convictions on your record within an 84-month period.
Under ARS 28-1383(A)(2), the 84-month look-back period for prior DUIs traces back to the dates of the prior offenses, not their conviction dates. For example, let’s say that you have a DUI conviction from 83 months ago, but the underlying DUI offense happened 85 months in the past. In this case, the past DUI would not count for calculation purposes because the date of the offense happened more than 84 months from your current DUI charge.
Similarly, the end of the look-back period has no effect on whether you will face an aggravated DUI charge. As an example, if you committed a third DUI offense in the 84th month after the first DUI offense, but are convicted of the third DUI 85 months after the first DUI offense, your third conviction will still be for an aggravated DUI for calculation of the 84-month period.
To count as a first or second DUI for purposes of counting prior convictions in the look-back period, the type of DUI—misdemeanor, extreme DUI, super extreme DUI, Drug-related DUI, or aggravated—does not matter.
A DUI conviction from another state will also count as a prior DUI, if the facts and circumstances of your prior out-of-state DUI would have been a DUI had it happened in Arizona.
An aggravated DUI conviction in Arizona is a Class 4 felony. Felony-level penalties are significantly more severe than misdemeanor penalties for other kinds of DUIs.
A third DUI conviction within an 84-month period can be charged as an aggravated DUI, and a conviction will result in you having to spend at least four months in an Arizona state prison. Depending on whether aggravating circumstances exist, you could spend as much as 3.75 years in prison.
You will be subject to fines, fees, assessments, etc., of at least $4,675.
Under ARS 28-1384, if you are convicted of aggravated DUI, you will forfeit your interest in the vehicle you were driving at the time of your arrest.
Upon conviction, the court will revoke (not suspend) your driver’s license for at least three years. When eligible, you must apply to have your license reinstated by submitting a revocation packet to the Arizona Motor Vehicles Department.
Unlike with less severe DUIs, if you have an aggravated DUI conviction, you are not eligible to apply for a restricted license to allow you to drive to and from work and school.
After your prison term is finished, the court that convicted you will require you to serve a term of supervised probation for up to 10 years.
During supervised probation, you must meet regularly with a probation officer and pay fees monthly. If you violate the terms of your probation, you can have your probation revoked and be returned to prison.
In addition to being on probation, the court will require you to perform community restitution, also known as community service.
You must install an ignition interlock device at your expense in any car you drive and keep it in those vehicles for two years.
SR22 Insurance is an additional, high-risk policy of car insurance that the court will require you to carry for at least three years after an aggravated DUI conviction. Its premiums are expensive, and you will be responsible for paying them. This is an added cost on top of any fines you must pay.
Part of your sentence will include a requirement to submit to drug and alcohol screening, as well as educational and treatment requirements, including Traffic Survival School.
An aggravated DUI in Arizona is not only subject to the heavy penalties above. Even after you have completed your prison sentence, paid all your fines, and completed all the other requirements the court imposes on you, the conviction will remain on your public record. Anyone who searches that record will find it.
This means that if you are trying to get a job, rent an apartment, qualify for a mortgage loan, buy a firearm, obtain or hold onto a professional license, or do anything else that will require a background check, you could have difficulty getting what you want or, in some situations, lose what you have.
You are not without legal defenses when facing an aggravated DUI charge. There are two levels of defense to consider: whether you can receive an acquittal or plea negotiation to a lesser charge if acquittal is not possible.
The acquittal defenses to an aggravated DUI are the same as for any other DUI: they seek to cast reasonable doubt on one or more of the elements of the crime that the prosecution must prove against you beyond a reasonable doubt.
These fall under the following types:
If it is not possible to secure an acquittal, then the next possibility to explore is whether the circumstances of your case are such that your DUI defense lawyer can negotiate with the prosecuting attorney to allow a plea to a lesser charge.
Taking an aggravated DUI case to trial is time-consuming for the city, county, and the state of Arizona. Often, prosecutors prefer to concentrate their resources on more serious crimes for trial. Especially if any mitigating circumstances exist, it may be possible to reach an agreement to plead guilty to a lesser form of DUI charge or another traffic charge.
For example, in some situations, it might be possible to plead guilty to a third misdemeanor DUI charge instead of to felony DUI charges. Although the penalties for this level of conviction are still serious, they are less than the harsher penalties you would face for an aggravated DUI.
If you have been charged with a third or subsequent DUI, you need elite criminal DUI defense.
Rosenstein Law Group has a team of attorneys with DUI defense specialists and more than 100 years of combined experience. Our attorneys are recognized as true experts and specialists.
Do not wait to speak to an attorney; get our skilled attorneys working on your case immediately by contacting us online or calling (480) 248-7666 for a free consultation.