Gouverneur man will stay in prison

CANTON — A state appeals court denied an appeal Thursday from a Gouverneur man who pleaded guilty in March 2007 of driving while intoxicated and criminally negligent homicide.

Edwin C. Dowling II, 33, said he was drunk when he drove his vehicle into a boulder and killed his passenger, Jeri Lynn LaBow Love, 27, on July 30, 2005 in the town of Dekalb.

He was sentenced to five years probation and 90 days in St. Lawrence County jail. According to court documents, Mr. Dowling repeatedly violated his terms of probation by entering bars, failing drug tests and not showing up at probation meetings.

Court documents showed he also failed to complete proper treatment.

In November 2010, County Court Judge Jerome J. Richards withdrew the probationary sentence and sentenced Mr. Dowling to 1 to 3 1/2 years in state prison.

The Third Judicial Department of the Appellate Division agreed with Judge Richards’s decision.

“Given the defendant’s repeated inability to abide by the conditions of his probation, we are unpersuaded by defendant’s contention that the sentence imposed is harsh or excessive,” the court wrote in a three-page decision.

Jonathan L. Becker handled the case for the District Attorney’s Office, and John A. Cirando, Syracuse, represented Mr. Dowling.