Overview
- Prosecutors say Carlos Alvarez was found asleep in a Salinas In‑N‑Out drive‑thru in June 2025 after a security guard alerted the California Highway Patrol and officers smelled urine, vomit and alcohol.
- A Monterey County judge sentenced Alvarez to three years in state prison for the seventh DUI conviction that was charged as a felony because of his prior record.
- The case was handled by the county’s DUI Vertical Prosecution Unit, a specialized team prosecutors say was recently bolstered with nearly $800,000 in state grant funding to focus on repeat impaired‑driving cases.
- Monterey County officials declined to disclose what penalties Alvarez received for his earlier DUIs, so public records do not show whether he served time for prior convictions.
- Under California law, multiple prior DUI convictions can elevate later offenses to felony charges, a legal standard prosecutors cited when pursuing prison time in this repeat‑offender case.