Johnnie Cross III began drinking at age 20, and his criminal record indicates he began getting into trouble with the law soon afterward.

On Wednesday, Cross, 59, of Sandusky was sentenced to four years in prison and given a lifetime driver’s license suspension after pleading guilty to his 12th drunken-driving offense.

“You’ve lived a life of 39 years of being intoxicated and driving, and the only thing left to do is to take you off the street and not let you have a driver’s license, said Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook.

The judge also ordered Cross to pay a $2,500 fine and undergo treatment for alcohol addiction.

Judge Cook said he had thoroughly reviewed Cross’ record, leading up to his most recent arrest in East Toledo just after 10 p.m. Jan. 19. An Ohio Highway Patrol trooper pulled Cross over after watching him stop at Main Street and Starr Avenue then turn left onto Starr while the stoplight was still red.

The trooper noted a strong odor of alcohol and Cross replied that he “always” had one.

“I would be curious to know what the actual accurate multiplier is of how many times you have been in this situation where you didn’t get stopped,” Judge Cook said. “Because certainly that’s something I would have to be concerned about: are you going to do this again and what sort of threat are you to our community?”

Cross told the court he was offering no excuses.

“I need to get it together, take care of this right,” he said. “I know I have a problem. A lot of this stuff happened when I was a lot younger, but it’s still a problem.”

His court-appointed attorney, Kurt Bruderly, asked the court to consider holding a prison term over Cross’ head by placing him on community control and ordering alcohol treatment and other requirements so that Cross could make the decision to be sober and law-abiding.

“I think both with his age and this case in particular and the amount of time he has spent in custody, I hope and I believe that something has awoken in Johnnie that will allow him to stop drinking and stop driving,” Mr. Bruderly said. “Regardless of the court’s sentence, that’s something Johnnie needs to do.”

Cross was first convicted of OVI in 1986. When he was arrested for drunken driving in Sandusky in 2011, he was indicted for a felony because of his prior convictions. A subsequent OVI in Lorain, Ohio, was treated as a misdemeanor, but after Cross was arrested in Toledo, he was indicted for a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a lifetime license suspension.

Cross, who pleaded guilty in Lucas County on May 24, received credit for the 138 days he has spent in the Lucas County jail since his arrest.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.

First Published June 8, 2017, 4:00 a.m.