A loophole in North Carolina's law allowed a man now charged in a fatal accident to serve less than half of a two-year sentence for a previous DWI conviction.

Kevin O'Hagan is charged with second-degree murder after police said the pickup truck he was driving collided with one driven by Daniel Herring in Monroe. Herring was killed in the crash.

O'Hagan was charged with DWI, in addition to second-degree murder and several other charges.

In 2007, after his sixth DWI conviction, O’Hagan served only 9 months of a two-year sentence, according to prison records. That's because the state's sentencing law makes an exception for DWI defendants, cutting their sentences in half as soon as they walk through the prison doors.

O'Hagan had a combination of what the state prison system calls "good time," "gain time" and "merit time," which cut 450 days off his sentence.

North Carolina’s structured sentencing law has been in place since 1994.

O'Hagan is being held in the Union County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

Previous Stories: October 26, 2010: Suspect In Fatal Crash Charged With 2nd-Degree Murder, DWI