Costa Mesa man drove around shooting out car windows while drunk; now he’s going to prison

A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for driving drunk around a Costa Mesa neighborhood while shooting out more than a dozen car windows with a BB gun.

An Orange County Superior Court judge handed down the sentence for Nicholas French of Costa Mesa on Thursday, the same day French pleaded guilty to felony vandalism and a misdemeanor count of driving with a blood-alcohol level of more than 0.08%, according to court records. A second misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence was dismissed.

Police said they arrested French on June 24 after a caller reported that the driver of a black Lincoln Town Car was shooting out car windows in a neighborhood near Costa Mesa High School along Mission and El Camino drives.

Investigators said at the time that French vandalized at least 17 vehicles.

Officers who stopped French determined he had been driving drunk, and they found a BB gun in his car’s back seat, police said.

Authorities said French was on parole at the time of his arrest, though they declined to elaborate.

Court records show French pleaded guilty in 2012 to first-degree burglary, receiving stolen property and possession of a concealed weapon. He was sentenced to two years in state prison in that case.