Felon’s sentence stands after driving SUV through house

RALEIGH, N.C. – A felon who plowed his speeding SUV through a sleeping woman’s bedroom while fleeing North Carolina law officers can’t claim he was wrongly convicted based on insufficient evidence he caused more than $1,000 in damage.

The state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Donald Leon Gorham II was rightfully convicted of speeding to elude arrest through three counties and a neighbourhood near Burlington.

Gorham tore through Reidsville’s city limits at 80 mph (130 kph), hit a guardrail, steered up a driveway, splintered through a house, and clipped a shed. A woman was lying in her bed with her head less than a foot (.3 metres) away from where Gorham’s Chevrolet Tahoe passed through the house.

Gorham was convicted as a habitual felon and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.