Shocking video of drunk, red light-running fatal collision with pedestrian played during sentencing hearing By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 6:32 PM CDT Monday, Sep. 22, 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/09/2025 (373 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The silence of a Winnipeg courtroom was broken with shocked gasps as video footage played Monday showing the last moment’s of Akuch Machuor’s life when she was mowed down by a drunk driver speeding through a red light.

Machuor, a 43-year-old Sudanese immigrant and single mother of three young children, died Sept. 23, 2023, as she was walking across the intersection at Fermor Avenue and St. Mary’s Road.

Kelvin Mark Lavallee, 27, has pleaded guilty to one count each of dangerous driving causing death, impaired driving causing death and leaving the scene of an accident.

“We don’t know what Mr. Lavallee was thinking when this collision occurred because he can’t provide an explanation,” said Crown attorney Nick Reeves, who urged King’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris to sentence Lavallee to seven years in prison.

“It’s surprising that only one person was killed,” Reeves said. “In that moment he was a man who, God only knows why, was looking to either cheat death or risk someone else’s life. It is no surprise that someone died.”

Video played in court showed Lavallee, behind the wheel of his partner’s red Audi A4, narrowly missed being struck by cars in both directions before he plowed into Machuor at high speed and continued driving without slowing down.

“It’s surprising that only one person was killed.”

“When he entered the intersection, the light had been red for 23 seconds,” Reeves told court.

Lavallee continued driving for 3.7 kilometres before pulling into an Esso gas station at Beaverhill Boulevard. Police arrested him as he was pumping gas into his vehicle. He later provided a breath sample reading agreed to be approximately .110 at the time of the collision, Reeves said.

Court heard an off-duty police officer was driving behind Lavallee minutes before the crash and saw him tailing other vehicles and weaving in his lane. Another motorist stopped at a red light reported seeing Lavallee on his cellphone.

Questioned by police, Lavallee said he had been at Legends sports bar prior to the collision, where he drank two Snapple vodka coolers. He said he had also taken a Tylenol 3 for a knee injury.

“I feel like a monster for what I did to her and her family,” Lavallee told police. “I didn’t know I hit her, I thought it was something else. I didn’t know it was a person… I know I messed up. I should have stopped.”

Lavallee spent nearly a year in custody before he was released on bail last November on strict conditions, including wearing an ankle bracelet.

Defence lawyer Zach Kinahan urged Harris to sentence Lavallee to no more than 18 more months in custody, arguing a penitentiary sentence would undo the work he has done to rehabilitate himself since his arrest.

Lavallee had a difficult upbringing, with a childhood darkened by family substance abuse and violence, Kinahan said.

Lavallee hasn’t had a drink since last November and, since the birth of his first child while he was in custody, has committed himself to fatherhood and being a better man, Kinahan said.

Two of Machuor’s nieces provided victim impact statements describing how her death has “shattered” their family.

“She was our source of love and strength; without her there is an emptiness we can’t fill,” said Abiol Akau.

After Machuor’s death, her three children were taken into care by Child and Family Services.

“Without her there is an emptiness we can’t fill.”

“Losing her was devastating, but losing the daily bond with her children multiplied it by three,” Akau said. “Instead of being able to hold onto them as a piece of her, her memory is fractured even further.”

Given an opportunity to address court, Lavallee turned to face Machuor’s family seated in the gallery.

“I am deeply so super genuinely sorry,” he said. “I am so sorry I made these stupid choices that brought me here today.”

Harris will sentence Lavallee on Nov. 13.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca