Qualifying Convictions for Purposes of Habitual DWI

G.S. 20-138.5(a) provides that “[a] person commits the offense of habitual impaired driving if he or she drives while impaired as defined in G.S. 20-138.1 and has been convicted of three or more offenses involving impaired driving as defined in G.S. 20-4.01(24a) within 10 years of the date of this offense.” Unlike the habitual felon statute (G.S. 14-7.1), the violent habitual felon statute (G.S. 14-7.7) and the habitual misdemeanor assault statute (G.S. 14-33.2), G.S. 20-138.5 does not explicitly state that the underlying impaired driving offense must occur after the convictions for other qualifying impaired driving convictions, though it strikes me as the most straightforward reading of the statute to interpret it as requiring that the instant offense be committed after the predicate convictions. The court of appeals’ characterization of the legislature’s intent in cases challenging the constitutionality and scope of G.S. 20-138.5 supports this view. See, e.g., State v. Bradley,  181 N.C. App. 557, 559 (2007) (stating that “[th]e habitual impaired driving statute is intended to provide an increased sentence for someone convicted of a fourth impaired driving offense, with the previous three offenses occurring within seven years of the fourth offense”); State v. Vardiman, 146 N.C. App. 381, 385 (2001) (stating that “[p]rior convictions of driving while impaired are the elements of the offense of habitual impaired driving, but the statute ‘does not impose punishment for [these] previous crimes, [it] imposes an enhanced punishment’ for the latest offense”); see also State v. Smith,  139 N.C. App. 209, 213 (2000) (stating that “[b]oth the habitual misdemeanor assault statute and [...]