Sunday night 49-year-old James Walker Byars of Gainesville, Florida decided that he needed a drink. Fortunately for him he rightly decided that he needed a designated driver for his trip to the bar but he picked the wrong person in a 12-year-old boy.
Sometime around 9pm one of the other customers of the bar called police when he found about about the kid, who was hiding in Byars’ van in the parking lot. When police arrived the kid was still there dressed only in a t-shirt and shorts despite the fact that the temperature was in the low ‘50s. According to one of the bar customers the kid was going to drive Byars and two other bar flies home when they left.
When Byars was arrested he tested with a blood alcohol level of .231, three times the legal level in the state of Florida. Byars had apparently instructed the boy to lay down in the van and not speak with anyone. He was turned over to a relative and Byars was lodged in the Alachua County jail.
