By Shereen Siewert
WAUSAU — A 29-year-old Wausau man discovered passed out in his vehicle is facing his sixth drunken driving charge, according to court documents.
Jeffrey S. Yellowthunder is being held in the Marathon County Jail on a $4,000 cash bond. A pretrial conference is set for April 19.
Police say they were called at 6:23 a.m. on Sunday to the Plaza Hotel & Suites in Wausau for a report of a man passed out behind the wheel of an SUV that was partially blocking the hotel driveway. An employee at the hotel tried to wake the man several times but was not successful, and estimated the man had been passed out for about two hours.
When police arrived they knocked on the window of the running SUV several times before the man behind the wheel, later identified as Yellowthunder, awoke. Yellowthunder was disoriented and unable to roll down the window and had difficulty finding the ignition keys to turn the vehicle off, according to the police report.
Yellowthunder refused a preliminary breath test and was taken to a local hospital for a blood draw, the results of which are pending. Police arrested him on the basis of his slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, difficulty in motor skills and a strong scent of alcohol, court records state. At the time of his arrest, Yellowthunder was on probation stemming from a 2016 domestic battery conviction.
If he is convicted on the OWI charge, Yellowthunder faces between six months and 10 years in the Wisconsin Prison System. He is eligible for license reinstatement in three years.
