Fresno man who killed when driving drunk charged with new DUI

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno man convicted of driving drunk and killing a young man in 2012 is now charged in a new DUI case.

Austin Jantz served just half of a two-year prison sentence for killing Shawn Schulte in January 2012. Jantz was 18 at the time, and he had a blood alcohol content of .15%, but his attorney argued he was only driving to get away from a much larger man who was chasing him from a party in east Central Fresno, near Shields and Armstrong.

Two months after Jantz got out of prison in January 2013, Fresno police arrested him for DUI again. He got sentenced to 10 more days in jail and a judge forced him to have an interlock ignition device on his car for three years to make sure he couldn't drive while drinking. That restriction ended in 2016.

In 2017, CHP officers say Jantz was driving drunk again when he crashed into a power pole at Academy and McKinley at 3:30 a.m. on July 26.

Just in the last few days, the Fresno County district attorney's office filed a DUI case against Jantz for that crash.

Schulte's family sent Action News a statement saying "Our family is saddened to hear this disturbing news, but unfortunately not surprised. Yet another incident involving this individual who continues to drive under the influence of alcohol. What is it going to take? Does another family have to lose a cherished loved one? We sincerely hope and pray it doesn't come to that. Someone please make him stop before it happens again."

Jantz put himself on the court calendar, and he'll face as long as seven years in prison if he's convicted.