Speeding driver ran red light in stolen pickup
CALGARY - There was no satisfaction and no closure for Boniface Pulwicki and his family when the impaired driver who caused a crash that killed his wife was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison.
Pulwicki said the length of the sentence that provincial court Judge Anne Brown meted out to Christopher James Rae on Thursday didn’t really make any difference.
“Justice is one thing, but we’ve had to deal with a huge loss,” a tearful husband said following the sentencing hearing. “Margaret will be missed forever.”
When asked what he thought about Rae now that the court process is complete, he said: “He has to deal with his problems.”
Brown said the crimes, including the crash that killed Malgorzata (Margaret) Pulwicki, 57, on Dec. 27, 2009, occurred when the offender was in the midst of an amphetamine addiction.
Rae, 27, was behind the wheel of a stolen truck travelling at more than 80 km/h in a 50 km/h zone on 20th Ave. N.W. when he ignored a red light and broadsided the Pulwickis’ 2003 Saturn at 10th St.
Margaret Pulwicki, a passenger in the left back seat of the vehicle being legally driven by her 14-year-old son Robert on the way to church, absorbed the majority of the impact. She died a short time later in hospital.
The family, which immigrated from Poland in 1979, said previously that just as they had stabilized their lives, “everything was toppled by the careless actions of a stranger.”
Brown gave Rae five years and five months for criminal negligence causing death and another 15 months for leaving the scene of a fatal crash.
She cited a “lengthy criminal record, related driving record, the escalating dangerous behaviour and the reckless driving” as aggravating factors in determining the sentence on the most serious of the offences.
She also gave him five months concurrent for leaving the scene of an accident with a second vehicle he struck, and 11 months concurrent for possession of the stolen vehicle he was driving.
As well, Rae was sentenced to 30 months consecutive for stealing $100,000 in what the judge called a “smash-and-grab” at a jewelry store on Aug. 14, 2009, and 10 months consecutive for robbing two clerks at a separate jewelry store on Sept. 3, 2009.
From the total sentence, Brown gave Rae double credit for 15 months already spent in remand, reducing his sentence to be served to seven years and five months.
She also prohibited Rae from driving for seven years after he is released from prison and banned for life from owning or possessing any firearms or other weapons.
Prosecutor Mike Ewenson had sought a total of 10 to 14 years. Defence lawyer Joan Blumer argued for six to nine years for all of the offences.
“My initial calculation ... resulted in a global sentence of 11 years,” Brown said. “Although I had already given some consideration to the totality effect of the sentence by making the possession of stolen property sentence concurrent, I then further reduced the sentence to 10 years.
“I made the reduction to reflect society’s desire to see Mr. Rae address his addictions by rehabilitation and thereby end his dangerous behaviour.”
Brown said the final word should go to the victim’s family and quoted from their victim impact statement:
“In many families losing a mother means losing the strongest link holding everyone together. Undoubtedly, this has happened in our case too. But it would be an even greater loss – in fact, an insult to what our family has worked to achieve — to let ourselves be broken up by the greatest of tragedies. Our hope is that the biggest impact on our family won’t be the heartbreak or the exhaustion of finding a new way to live, but to stay together, just like our mom, wife and friend would have wanted.”
SOURCE
----
Business owners and entrepreneurs who own any social venue and who are looking to start a cash business can now do there part in the prevention of Drunk Driving. Please visit alcobuddy.com. World's premiere Breathalyzer Vending Machine for more information.
No comments:
Post a Comment