The former bassist for 3 Doors Down pleaded no contest on Monday to a second-offence drug-related charge of driving while impaired.
Todd Harrell did not appear in court in D’Iberville, on the Gulf Coast. An attorney entered the plea on his behalf, local media outlets reported.
A no-contest plea means Harrell neither admits nor disputes the charge. It is treated as an admission of guilt for sentencing.
Municipal Judge Albert Fountain sentenced Harrell to the maximum one year in prison. Fountain suspended six months of the sentence. Harrell must admit himself to a drug and alcohol facility and attend a multiple-offenders programme. After rehab, he’ll have to spend six months behind bars.
Fountain said Harrell has indicated that he will appeal.
Harrell, 43, was arrested on the second-offence DUI charge on February 18, 2014. A police officer found him slumped over the steering wheel at a city intersection.
In Harrell’s first DUI case in D’Iberville, he told police he had prescription drugs in his system when he rear-ended a car in July 2012. He was convicted, then appealed and was found guilty again.
The Sun Herald reports that the D’Iberville conviction and additional allegations cost him his job with 3 Doors Down, known for such hits as Kryptonite. He was a founding member.
Nine months after his first D’Iberville incident, Harrell was arrested in Nashville on a charge of vehicular homicide by intoxication. He was accused of driving impaired by prescription drugs and alcohol in the April 2013 fatal crash.
Harrell is under house arrest in Nashville for that case.
No trial date has been set, though a hearing is scheduled for March 27 on motions in the case.
