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Appeals court: Keep Urso jailed until DUI trial
By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
The 11th District Court of Appeals has upheld the decision of a Trumbull County Common Pleas court judge, who ordered Keith Urso, 49, of Warren to remain in jail while he awaits trial on his 15th drunken-driving charge.
Urso hasn’t had a valid driver’s license since his first conviction in 1979, but he continued to drive, racking up 31 moving violations, and his license was suspended 29 times, the ruling noted.
The 22-page ruling included a lengthy accounting of Urso’s criminal and traffic convictions, including his 14 previous drunken- driving convictions and a conviction in 1990 in which his blood-alcohol level was 0.37, nearly five times the legal limit.
From October 1982, when Urso was 22, to November 1983, Urso was convicted of vehicular homicide for killing 25-year-old Nadine Foster of Warren while driving drunk in Bristol Township and was guilty of drunken driving two other times.
He spent about 41/2 months in the Trumbull County Jail altogether for all three offenses.
He was sentenced to one year in jail in 2006 for drunken driving and speeding on state Route 88.
The appeals court ruling means Urso will remain in jail until his trial date, not yet set, on a charge of felony drunken driving. If convicted, he could get more than 10 years in prison.
This charge stems from Urso’s arrest Jan. 31 outside Monty’s Carry Out and Restaurant at state Route 88 and Bazetta Road.
A concerned motorist followed him there and called 911 because he reportedly was driving erratically.
A test later indicated his blood-alcohol level was 0.286, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08.
Urso’s car was “all over both sides of the road,” the appeals court said, quoting investigators. The man calling 911 said there were cars driving on the opposite side of the road, and he hoped the driver was “not going to hit them head-on.”
When Urso stopped at Monty’s Carry Out and Restaurant, the witness stopped, too, to wait for police to arrive.
Urso was sleeping when deputy sheriffs arrived.
Judge Andrew Logan has not set a trial date for Urso, and he is expected to rule on a variety of motions filed by Urso’s attorney, public defender Anthony Consoldane, sometime next week.