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Teen pleads guilty in stolen-vehicle crash that killed North End man
JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image
A speeding stolen Hummer H2 smashed into Zdzislaw Andrzejczak’s Subaru at the corner of Alfred Avenue and Andrews Street on Dec. 11, 2009.
WINNIPEG - One of Winnipeg's highest-profile car thieves has admitted to killing an innocent motorist while behind the wheel of a stolen Hummer.
The 19-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to criminal negligence causing death for the December 2009 tragedy in the city’s North End. He remains in custody and will be sentenced early next year following completion of a court-ordered report looking at his background, including his native ancestry, which could be used by his lawyers to argue for a more lenient penalty based on a previous Supreme Court ruling.
A family photo of Zdzislaw Andrzejczak, 47, who was killed when his small car was struck by the stolen Hummer. (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS )
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Zdzislaw Andrzejczak, 47, died of massive internal injuries after being hit near the corner of Andrews Street and Alfred Avenue. The married father of one was only two blocks from his home. The 2005 Hummer H2 was stolen earlier in the day from a parking lot on the 1800 block of Wellington.
The Free Press is not publishing the man’s name in order to reveal details about his criminal past, including a link to another deadly stolen car crash in March 2008.
He pleaded guilty in June 2008 to being one of seven youths inside a stolen Silverado that was racing a stolen SUV carrying seven other teens down Portage Avenue. The SUV ended up slamming into a cab, killing driver Antonio Lanzellotti and seriously injuring a passenger.
The accused, who was 16 at the time, was identified by police as the driver of the Silverado but only admitted in court to being an occupant of the vehicle, which peeled off down a side street moments before the fatal crash. He was given 72 days of time in custody, plus two years of supervised probation, which included a curfew and not being in a car without permission.
He was back in court during the summer of 2009, charged with breaching conditions of his probation. Justice sources told the Free Press the boy "went off the deep end" following the sudden death of his grandfather. A judge sentenced him to another year of probation.
Winnipeg police have classified the man as a Level 4 offender in the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy, which is the maximum designation available and means he is under frequent supervision from police. However, he was not required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.
Achive video of crash scene from December 2009:
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