If a judge believes that addiction played a part in a person’s DUI, that judge may order them into some kind of treatment program. Most of the time, this means attending AA meetings or a short-term stay in a rehabilitation center. Sometimes, the judge will order the person to a more long-term stay in a sober living environment or sober housing. Unlike rehab, which typically takes place in a medical facility, a sober living environment is meant as a full-time home for weeks, months, or even years. While rules vary from residence to residence, but one of the major rules is total sobriety.
The OC Register reports on a man on trial for murder after leaving a friend to die following a DUI crash. The trial began on Tuesday for 30-year-old Jonathan Samoff, who is facing a second-degree murder charge.
The charge stems from an accident which killed Samoff’s friend, 25-year-old Isaias Tang, Jr. Tang was a friend that Samoff had met in a sober living home he had been kicked out of just hours prior to the DUI crash.
On March 7, 2014, Samoff and another friend had both been kicked out of the Anaheim sober living home where they had been living. At around 10 p.m., Samoff and Tang, showed up to a gym already intoxicated. They said that they were planning on going to a bar in Fullerton.
At around 2 a.m., the men went to the home of a family member of Tang’s, who pleaded with him not to drive. Samoff told the family member that he was the designated driver. Samoff was driving Tang’s Toyota Camry at around 70 m.p.h. when he jumped a curve, struck a wall, and came to rest against the light pole.
Samoff then ran around the car, pulled Tang from the vehicle, and fled the scene. He went to the home of a family member, who took Samoff to the hospital for treatment for a cut. Based on blood tests taken at the hospital, police believe that Samoff’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit at the time of the crash.
If convicted of the murder charge, Samoff faces up to 15 years to life in prison.
