BILOXI (AP) — A man has turned himself in on a felony DUI charge, his fifth DUI charge in six years, Biloxi Police Detective Justin Branning said. Biloxi police had arrested John Alexander Gonzalez, 43, on a misdemeanor DUI charge Jan. 13, when police stopped him on Edgewater Drive near Beach Boulevard, Branning said.

The misdemeanor was upgraded to a felony after Branning said he obtained court abstracts to prove Gonzalez’s four convictions. Under a state law that took effect Oct. 1, a fourth DUI charge is punishable as a felony regardless of the time frame of other convictions. Previously, a third DUI was a felony but only if the two prior convictions occurred within the past five years.