A son of former Dolphins, Panthers, and Marlins owner H. Wayne Huizenga was sentenced yesterday to two years in state prison in the aftermath of a drunken night out on his boat in Fort Lauderdale.
That sentence, however, is just for violating probation imposed by a previous drunk driving incident, and Robert Ray Huizenga isn't expected to spend much time behind bars thanks to time served credits from the arrest in July and 120 days served in 2006 for a 2003 DUI charge.
But if Huizenga, 48, is convicted of the actual drunken boating charges at an upcoming trial, it will be his fourth drunk driving conviction -- and will carry a penalty of five years in prison.
"I just feel like everybody's so disappointed," he said to Broward Circuit Judge Michele Towbin Singer. "I don't think anyone thought I was going to be in this situation. I don't think I believed that I would. Looking back, I think that maybe I got a little too confident."
Or maybe he got a little too drunk, again. Huizenga was caught violating probation when a Fort Lauderdale woman called police to report burglers were attempting to break into her home. Officers found Huizenga slurring his words and smelling of alcohol behind the wheel of his idling fishing boat.
He refused to submit to an alcohol test and was arrested, while telling police he thought the house was his.
"He was so drunk," said prosecutor Lanie Bandell, "he thought this single-story house [on the other side of the canal] was his big tall house."
Local
A companion, 44-year-old Patrick Stewart, was charged with trespassing and drug possession.
Huizenga's lawyers had argued for a court-imposed rehab stay instead of jail time, but Judge Singer wasn't having it -- seemingly agreeing with Bandell that a "wonderful facility in Maryland will accept him and his money with open arms [after he is released]."
Huizenga's propation was imposed after the 2003 conviction, an incident that left a 71-year-old man bloodied with a concussion and broken elbow.
His father, who built Waste Management, Blockbuster Video, and AutoNation into successful companies in addition to buyithree of South Florida's sports franchises, was present in court.
