Sam Hunt pleaded guilty Wednesday to driving under the influence in 2019 – but he won’t spend any time behind bars.
The 36-year-old country star, who appeared in Davidson County Circuit Court in Nashville via video, pleaded guilty to two counts of DUI and was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail with all time suspended except for 48 hours.
Hunt will serve his 48 hours at the DUI Education Centers, an alternative sentencing facility in Christiana, about 50 minutes south of Nashville. He will also lose his drivers license for one year and will then have to have a breath-screening device installed in his vehicle.
The "Body Like a Back Road" singer, who recently collaborated with Ingrid Andress on “Wishful Thinking,” was facing the possibility of more than two years in prison, according to the Tennessean.
Hunt was arrested in November 2019 after police in East Nashville noticed his vehicle traveling south in a northbound lane. “There was an obvious odour consistent with alcoholic beverage coming from the defendant as well as red bloodshot and watery eyes,” read a police report. “There were two empty beers in the vehicle next to the driver. The defendant had difficulty retrieving his ID and attempted to give a credit card and passport instead while his [Tennessee] driver license sat on his lap.”
Hunt had a blood alcohol level of .173, according to police.
He accepted responsibility in a tweet two days later. “I decided to drive myself home after drinking at a friend’s show in downtown Nashville. It was a poor and selfish decision and I apologize to everyone who was unknowingly put at risk and let down by it. It won’t happen again.”