SANTA CRUZ – Four years after a DUI crash that killed two of his cousins in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a 20-year-old man was arraigned Thursday on felony drunken driving charges stemming from a solo crash in November off Summit Road.
Donovan Hicks Barclay III appeared in Santa Cruz County Superior Court limping and wearing a neck brace. He has not been in custody since the crash, which left him in critical condition and in physical therapy. But Thursday, as the charges were upgraded from misdemeanor status to felony, prosecutors argued that he should be jailed during his new DUI case. His public defender, Jon Minsloff, argued successfully against that.
Just after midnight Nov. 18, 2010, Barclay drove a Toyota pickup at least 55 mph in a 35 mph zone on Summit Road just south of Bayview Drive, prosecutors said, and slammed into a tree. When paramedics arrived, they were unsure if he was alive, prosecutor Michael McKinney said in court.
Barclay’s blood alcohol level was 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit, prosecutors said.
The case comes after a February 2007 DUI collision in which Barclay drove a Saab more than 80 mph on Laurel Glen Road and flipped the car, according to the CHP. The crash killed brothers Tyler and Shane Barclay, 17 and 22, respectively. The boys were Donovan Barclay’s cousins.
“The defendant very well knows the dangers of driving under the influence,” McKinney said in court. “He hasn’t learned. I think public safety is what this court should be considering.”
Barclay has had eight moving violations since 2006, including a speeding ticket in 2007.
Judge Ariadne Symons delayed Barclay’s bail hearing to March 8, and did not send him to County Jail given that he is receiving physical therapy and that his public defender had just received the case. Symons ordered him to abstain from alcohol, drugs and driving, and going out at night.
Through his attorney, Barclay said he couldn’t drink alcohol because of liver lacerations from the crash.
Symons asked Barclay’s mother, Trudy, who appeared in court with him if she would make sure he abided by the conditions.
She replied: “In every way.”
Trudy Barclay declined to comment on the case outside court.
“We don’t talk to you,” she said.
Donovan Barclay was 16 when he crashed the Saab in 2007, according to court records, but details of the case are not public because it was in juvenile court.
Shannon Barclay Adams, Trudy’s sister-in-law and the mother of Shane and Tyler who were killed in the 2007 crash, has made it her mission to speak against drunken driving since then, even working with the District Attorney‘s Office.
Barclay Adams said Thursday, “I love my nephew. The right thing to do is to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
She said of the November crash, “He should never have been driving – but you can’t take back the past, you can only deal with the future.”
