A jury in Island County Superior Court found a Freeland man guilty of felony DUI at trial last week.

Brian M. Shelley, who is 53 years old, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 3. He faces from 22 to 29 months in prison under the standard sentencing range.

Under state law, a DUI becomes a felony offense when a defendant had previously been convicted of vehicular assault while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. In Shelley’s case, he was convicted of vehicular assault and hit and run in a 2013 incident in which he struck another car and fled the scene, leaving an injured driver behind. Shelley admitted to drinking a beer and smoking marijuana before the crash, according to court documents.

In the current felony DUI case, Shelley crashed his SUV into a snow bank and a guardrail on Highway 525 in Central Whidbey on the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2021. Nobody was injured, but the crash caused substantial damage to his vehicle, the guardrail and a power box.

Shelley told a state trooper at the scene that he drank a non-alcohilic beer and smoked pot prior the the crash. The Washington State Crime Lab tested samples of his blood taken three hours after the crash. The tests showed the presence of 0.028 grams of ethanol per 100 mL of blood and a THC level of 6.0 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

The state legal driving limit is a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 and a THC level of 5.0.

At the end of the four-day trial, the jury deliberated for just over two hours before returning a verdict of guilty on the single charge.