Hamilton drunk driver gets 5 years for Zo Nudell's death

A Hamilton man with a history of drinking and driving has been handed a five-year prison sentence for being impaired in a car crash that fatally injured a 33-year-old Halifax woman.

Joseph Warren, 42, pleaded guilty on Monday to impaired driving causing death and marijuana possession.The charges stem from an Oct. 31 collision, when his 2006 Toyota Corolla hit ZoNuddell an artist who moved to Hamilton two weeks earlier while she was jogging on Charlton Avenue East near the Wentworth Stairs.

She died in hospital the next day.

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Officers arrested Warren, who was driving without insurance, at the scene of the crash. He blew three times over the legal blood-alcohol limit on a breath test at the station.

He was also foundin possession of marijuana.

On the same day as Warren entered his plea, a judge handed down his sentence. He faces a five-yearprison term, a lifetime driving banand two$1,000 fines, one for driving without insurance and the other for driving without an interlock device.

Hamilton police spokesman Claus Wagner said he couldnt comment on whether Warren had previousimpaired driving convictions. But the fine for driving without an interlock device indicatesthat Warren hasahistory of drivingunder the influence of alcohol.

In Ontario, judgescan order people with drunk driving convictions or alcohol-related licence suspensions to install aninterlock device in their vehicles, said Wagner.The technology requires the driverblow a clean breath test before the car will start.