10th DUI conviction brings 5-year term

By Ed Runyan

The Sebring man was first arrested on a DUI charge in 1977, when he was 16.

YOUNGSTOWN — If seven months in prison isn’t enough time to teach a Sebring man to stop driving drunk, maybe five years will do the trick.

That’s the scenario facing Paul Stillion, 47, who was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for having been convicted of DUI for the 10th time.

Stillion was arrested by Sebring police at 5:15 p.m. Jan. 5, after a police officer observed his car traveling left of center and pulled him over.

Stillion was unable to successfully perform any field sobriety tests and was asked whether he would take an alcohol breath test.

He refused, saying he had been drinking whiskey and beer all day.

Stillion was under at least one license suspension at the time, probably several, said J. Michael Thompson, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.

Stillion had been out of prison for about 14 months at the time, having been given judicial release on Sept. 18, 2006, after serving about seven months of a 10-month jail sentence for his last DUI. His license was also suspended for three years at the time.

In 1999, Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Stillion to two years’ probation and ordered him to complete an in-house drug counseling program through Community Corrections Association for his seventh and eighth DUIs.

Stillion has been in Mahoning County Jail since the January arrest, acquiring 146 days credit on the five-year jail term he received from Judge R. Scott Krichbaum on Friday.

Judge Krichbaum also suspended Stillion’s license for life and fined him $1,000. He is required to attend mandatory drug counseling.

Judge Krichbaum compared Stillion to a loaded .44 magnum firearm “waiting to go off,” adding, “You’re a disaster waiting to happen.”

Judge Krichbaum could have sentenced Stillion to up to 10 years in prison — five for the DUI, as well as five more for being a repeat DUI offender. Prosecutors recommended four years in prison.

Stillion’s first DUI was in 1977, when he was 16.

runyan@vindy.com