‘That was the last time I saw my Rob’ Partner of killed cyclist grieves during sentencing hearing By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 1:17 PM CST Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025 Last Modified: 6:21 PM CST Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025 Updates

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Rob Jenner set off on his bike for work on June 6, 2024 after celebrating his 61^st birthday a night earlier.

“It was always the same,” his partner Wendy Van Loon told a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday. “Rob left for work dressed in his bright yellow shirt and helmet with blinking lights, kissed me goodbye, and I called out to him as he walked away: ‘Be safe and have a fun day.’

“But that was the last time I saw my Rob.”

As Jenner cycled along Wellington Crescent on his way to work at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, he was mowed down and killed by a teenage motorist who was driving more than three times the speed limit.

The driver, 19-year-old Beckham Severight, and a male teenage passenger, immediately fled the scene without checking on Jenner and were only arrested after police tracked them to their Talbot Avenue apartment building.

Severight has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and leaving the scene of an accident. Prosecutors urged provincial court Judge Cynthia Devine to sentence him to four years in prison.

“I cannot comprehend how someone could strike Rob so violently and then leave him alone to lie on the side of the road,” Van Loon said, turning from Devine to address Severight, who was seated in the prisoner’s box.

“Each night as my head rests on the pillow, I am haunted by visions of Rob colliding with the windshield and then crashing to the ground, helpless after the impact, enduring his final moments of life…. A man who dedicated his life to helping others, who would have stopped for a stranger, was left to die on the side of the road.”

Crown attorney Matt Dueck detailed the circumstances of the crash in an agreed statement of facts provided to court.

On the morning of the collision, Severight had asked his roommate, Lyle Barker-Young, if he could take his leased 2013 BMW sedan for a drive. Severight had only a learner’s permit. Barker-Young, 18, had a valid licence and accompanied Severight, but did not qualify as a supervising driver.

Shortly before 7 a.m., Severight was driving eastbound on Wellington Crescent in the curb lane, when he “rapidly accelerated his speed” as he rounded a curve near the intersection of Hugo Street, Dueck told court.

“I cannot comprehend how someone could strike Rob so violently and then leave him alone to lie on the side of the road.”–Wendy Van Loon

Jenner was up ahead, cycling in the same lane.

“There was nothing remarkable about his movements,” Dueck said. “He was safely and responsibly travelling in the eastbound curb lane on a route that is regularly utilized by cyclists.”

Severight saw Jenner and tried to avoid a collision, but lost control of the vehicle and went into a skid before crashing into the back of Jenner’s bicycle, sending him crashing onto the car’s hood.

“Witnesses described the deceased as being thrown no less than 10 feet into the air before his body came to rest just off the roadway,” Dueck said.

Barker-Young told Severight not to stop and he drove away before stopping a short time later for Barker-Young to take the driver’s seat.

Jenner was taken to hospital and was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

Witnesses called police with a description of Severight’s vehicle and the two men were arrested later that morning in a common area of their apartment building.

After being taken into custody, Severight gave police “a full account of the incident,” telling investigators he saw green lights and open roadway before he hit the accelerator, knowing the speed limit was 50 km/h.

Severight’s decisions that morning were “incomprehensible,” and his actions “morally reprehensible,” Dueck said.

Driving triple the speed limit “is an outrageous speed for anywhere, in any circumstances,” Dueck said.

Defence lawyer Mike Cook urged Devine to sentence Severight to 18 months in jail, followed by 18 months of supervised probation.

Cook provided the court with dozens of support letters describing Severight, who had spent much of his childhood in foster care, as an insightful, thoughtful, and caring man who had overcome personal challenges and was dedicated to helping others.

Severight “admits 100 per cent responsibility for the accident,” Cook said. “This is a deep, deep scar on my client’s heart.”

Severight had lost his job at a soup kitchen prior to the collision and was despondent, Cook said. Severight asked Barker-Young if they could take his car for a ride to clear his head.

Severight “had very little hands-on experience” with a car, Cook said.

Once behind the wheel, he pressed down on the accelerator and “wanted to see how fast the car could go.”

While driving away from the crash scene, Severight told Barker-Young three times he wanted to return and check on Jenner, Cook said.

“My client said three times ‘I want to stop, ‘I want to go back,’ and three times his roommate said ‘No, keep going,’” Cook said.

Severight panicked and made the wrong decision, Cook said.

“I think Mr. Severight , like a lot of people when they think something bad might happen, they try very hard to convince themselves maybe things weren’t that bad, maybe the fellow is OK, maybe some broken bones.”

Severight told court he was “ashamed of myself.”

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“I will never forgive myself,” he said. “I have spent countless hours and sleepless nights thinking about the harm I have caused.”

Jenner’s death sent shock waves through Winnipeg’s cycling community, said cycling advocate Patty Wiens, the “Bicycle Mayor of Winnipeg.”

“If we expect to live where we can walk, cycle, or even drive without fearing for our lives, we must stop simply asking drivers to pay attention and slow down,” Wiens told court. “We need to make them slow down and hold them accountable.”

Devine will sentence Severight at a later date. He remains in custody.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.