Chronic car thief jailed for killing innocent motorist

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This article was published 03/03/2011 (5692 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A chronic Winnipeg car thief could be back on the streets before his 21st birthday for killing an innocent motorist in a stolen Hummer.

The 19-year-old high-risk offender was sentenced Thursday afternoon to 55 months in jail, in addition to 14 and-a-half months of time already served which he was given double-time credit of 29 months. On paper, it’s a seven year penalty. In reality, it’s far less.

He will be eligible for parole after serving just one-third of his remaining time, about 18 months.

The Free Press is not publishing the offender’s name and thus can reveal details about his criminal past as one of the city’s most prolific car thieves, including his link to another deadly stolen-car crash in March 2008.

Provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson accepted a joint-recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers, saying the sentence falls in line with other similar precedents across Canada. She also imposed a 15-year driving ban on the man, saying “the public needs to be protected from his recklessness.”

It should be noted he was driving without a licence and under three separate probation orders not to be in a motor vehicle at the time of the deadly December 2009 crash in the North End.

Zdzislaw Andrzejczak, 47, died after his vehicle was struck by the stolen Hummer, which blew through a stop sign while going 94 km/h in a 50 km/h zone near the corner of Andrews Street and Alfred Avenue.

Andrzejczak, a married father of one who worked as an auto mechanic and came to Canada from Poland in the late 1980s, was only two blocks from his home. The 2005 Hummer H2 had been stolen earlier in the day from a parking lot in the 1800 block of Wellington Avenue. Police tried to pull the vehicle over moments earlier when they clocked the driver doing 112 km/h. They abandoned their chase because of safety concerns, court was told.

Moments later, Andrzejczak was dead. The accused fled the scene but was arrested days later.

“The actions (of the accused) are what every law abiding citizen driving a motor vehicle is afraid of,” said Carlson.

The case sparked calls for tougher car-theft penalties. Last year, Ottawa made it a new Criminal Code offence.

The same offender pleaded guilty in June 2008 to being one of seven youths in a stolen Silverado pickup truck 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 youth, 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 in summer 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.

A youth co-accused, who was allegedly in the passenger seat of the Hummer at the time of the crash, remains before the courts.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Archive Video: Witness describes North End crash