Matthew Ballinger v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

Summary

The Court held that Kentucky's DUI enhancement statute requires a two-part inquiry: the predicate offense must have occurred within five years before the current offense, and the conviction for that predicate offense must have been entered before conviction for the current offense. Because Ballinger's two July 2010 DUI offenses preceded his September 2010 offense and resulted in convictions before resolution of the Warren County case, they could support a fourth-offense charge, even though the convictions occurred afterward and were entered on the same day. The Court affirmed the Court of Appeals and remanded for further proceedings; Noble, J., concurring, emphasized that convictions entered before the penalty phase may be used to establish the degree of DUI.