Man accused of killing university student in high-speed crash has long legal history

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This article was published 22/10/2015 (3965 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The man accused of killing a 20-year-old University of Manitoba student in a drunken, high-speed crash has a troubling legal history including several warnings about his repeated abuse of alcohol.

Court documents and audio transcripts reviewed by the Free Press show Manuel Cowley is no stranger to the system. Cowley, 27, was arrested this week and charged with 19 offences in connection with the Oct. 9 incident that killed Taylor Renwick.

“You should not be drinking,” provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie told Cowley during his most recent sentencing hearing back on April 20, 2015. Cowley had just pleaded guilty to breaching conditions of a probation order by not abstaining from alcohol. Police had found him two days earlier, passed out in a field on Magnus Street while severely intoxicated.

The probation order stemmed from an Oct. 6, 2014, sentencing in which Cowley admitted to molesting a five-year-old girl during a December 2012 house party he was invited to by a friend. Cowley was drunk at the time when he wandered upstairs, found the victim asleep in her bedroom, and began fondling her. The girl’s mother caught him in the act, leading to Cowley suffering a severe beating at the hands of her and several other guests.

Cowley was sentenced to eight months in jail, in addition to the equivalent of 10 months already served. He was also put on three years of supervised probation, which included the abstain clause — a clause he had previously breached three times while on bail that led to him repeatedly going back into custody, which was deducted from his overall sentence.

Cowley blamed the child abuse on alcohol, claiming he had no memory of the incident.

“He mentions bad things seem to happen while he’s under the influence of alcohol,” Crown attorney Debbie Buors told court during the sentencing hearing. She had sought a three-year prison sentence on the sexual interference charge, which would have ensured Cowley was still behind bars to this day. But provincial court Judge Tim Preston decided to impose an 18-month sentence on paper, once pre-trial custody was factored in.

According to a court-ordered pre-sentence report, Cowley has battled alcohol addiction since his teenage years, due largely to negative family influences in his life.

“This is a problem Mr. Cowley more or less comes by honestly,” defence lawyer Jeremy Kostiuk said at the time. “He understands the moral culpability of letting his addiction issue get out of control.”

All of the right things were said at that sentencing hearing — that Cowley knew he needed help, planned to seek it out during the remainder of his jail term and hoped to get his life back on track upon release, including trying to restore a relationship with his two young children in the custody of his former partner.

“You didn’t do anything about your drinking while you were out (on bail) in the community,” Preston told him at the time. “You have ambivalence towards your use of alcohol and the trouble it’s gotten you in.”

Yet just weeks after his release from jail came the discovery of a drunken Cowley in that North End park earlier this year. He was given a one-week jail sentence for that breach. He wouldn’t have any more involvement with police until the deadly crash earlier this month.

During that April sentencing, his lawyer told court that Cowley had just got a job at a food processing plant in Brandon and decided to have one final celebration before heading west. He said this followed a similar pattern in the past where “one drink just sets him off” for a lengthy bender.

Cowley is now charged with criminal negligence causing death, three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, impaired driving causing death, three counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm, flight from police causing death, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, and three counts each of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm and flight from police causing bodily harm.

He is also charged with two counts of breaching that same existing probation order to abstain from alcohol.

Police are still investigating the incident, which happened on Highway 2 about three kilometres east of St. Claude after a police chase.

Renwick, a student in the University of Manitoba’s athletic therapy program, died after her vehicle was hit head-on by a suspected drunk driver who had fled from police. RCMP eventually ended the high-speed pursuit because it was too dangerous to the public.

As per the Police Services Act, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba is now involved in the case.

Cowley suffered critical injuries in the crash, which is why he wasn’t arrested and charged until this week. He has been moved from hospital to jail, where he remains in custody without bail.

In a statement emailed to the Free Press by her family, Renwick was described as an “amazing” person who “loved what she loved with all her heart. She loved her family, friends and her pets (dog Kozmo). Taylor was a shooting star that burned bright, but, unfortunately, far too fast.”

Her family said Renwick loved sports, especially hockey. She was most recently playing with the Aces in Winnipeg.

Melody Bodnarchuk, president of the Winnipeg chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), said RCMP were tipped off about the suspected drunk driver through the Report Impaired Drivers (RID) 911 program. RID is in place in the Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Thompson areas. Members of the public are encouraged to call police when they see a suspected impaired driver.

“This is horrible. Our deepest, deepest condolences to the family of this 20-year-old young lady. She lost her life due to a crash that was 100 per cent preventable,” Bodnarchuk said. She said in this case, a death resulted from “the reckless, high-risk driving behaviour” of the suspected impaired driver.

University of Manitoba athletic therapy students are now raising money for the Taylor Renwick Sponsor A Minor Hockey Player Fund in her honour.

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