AUBURN - A Cayuga County jury deliberated an hour and a half before finishing for the night Tuesday in the case of a Syracuse man who is facing his seventh possible conviction related to drinking and driving.

Kriss Kissell, 40, faces the felony crimes of driving while intoxicated and first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation as well as the traffic infraction of failure to obey police and failure to keep right.

Three Cayuga County sheriff's deputies were called to the stand Tuesday in the trial. No defense witnesses were called.

The jury sent out a note asking

or a distinction between driving while intoxicated and driving with ability impaired.

Judge Peter Corning told them being guilty of DWAI means that the consumption of alcohol had “the slightest effect” on the physical and mental abilities used in driving. DWI involves the higher burden of proof of incapacity, he said.

Kissell has four prior driving while intoxicated convictions and two driving with ability impaired convictions.

In February, Kissell was sentenced to one year in the Cayuga County Jail. He had been out of jail for about a month before the latest incident.

The deputies testified Kissell drove drunk and without a license while leading them on a high-speed chase Oct. 24 - sometimes going as fast as 75 mph - from the village of Port Byron to Onondaga County's Warners. Police said he finally ditched his car on a dead-end street and tried to lose officers on foot through a wet, woodsy area.

Kissell says he was not intoxicated.

At the jury's request, testimony will be read back to them and they will receive an explanation of reasonable doubt when they reconvene today.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net