She sleeps in his bedroom, next to pictures that display Aaron Anaya Jr.'s easy smile and his interest in family, football and motorcycles, including the custom-built bike he rode to his death. She visits the roadside memorial dedicated to Aaron and pays respects at the cemetery where he's buried.

She talks about Aaron in the present tense. "I guess I think he's still here," she said. "He is here."

Gregory D. Artz, who has been charged with killing Anaya while driving drunk, had two prior DUI charges dismissed and pleaded guilty to lesser charges in a third case. Artz should have been stopped before killing her son, Aguilar said.

"People try to tell me that it was God's will or that it was his time, but I can't think that way," said Aguilar, 42. "It makes me angry because I feel this could have been prevented. The system didn't work. They didn't do their job."

In addition to Artz, at least nine other motorists with pending or dismissed DUI charges have been killed or accused of killing someone else while driving drunk since 1999. Six died in crashes. The other three pleaded guilty to various charges.

Such cases reveal the consequences of the Tucson area's revolving-door system of DUI justice. Nearly half of all DUI defendants escape conviction in Tucson City Court and Pima County Justice Court, where most DUIs are handled. Motorists repeatedly charged with DUI, such as Artz, are even more successful, avoiding conviction in 62 percent of cases.

But this time around, Artz faces a different charge, second-degree murder, which carries a prison sentence of up to 22 years. Artz is accused of intentionally or knowingly killing Anaya.

Artz, 45, was driving his pickup truck to work around 8 a.m. when he turned in front of Anaya on West Ajo Way, said Officer Jim Oien, a state Department of Public Safety spokesman. Artz, a heavy-equipment operator, had a blood-alcohol level nearly four times the legal indication of intoxication of 0.08 percent, court records say.

Anaya was thrown from his motorcycle and into a street sign.

Artz also faces a criminal damage charge and three DUI charges in the Superior Court case. He's in the county jail on $1 million bail.

Artz said he didn't see Anaya when he turned in front of him, which is the heart of his defense, according to his attorney, Tyler Francis of the Pima County Public Defender's Office. Francis hopes to get a plea bargain for Artz on a charge with a typical sentence of six to 10 years in prison.

A prison sentence would help bring some closure, Aguilar said. But her family knows from experience that a conviction in a DUI fatality case doesn't necessarily keep a motorist off the road for long.

Fighting the law

Artz refused to comment for this article, and his attorney wouldn't talk about the numerous brushes Artz has had with police, detailed in court records:

1991: Artz, who had been driving recklessly, ignored a Tucson police officer's order to drive to the side of the road. When he finally stopped, he resisted arrest and was subdued by officers, records show.

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