Man given 5.5 years for drunken high-speed hit-and-run that killed mom of three

A Winnipeg man responsible for a high-speed, alcohol-fuelled collision that killed a 43-year-old Sudanese immigrant with three children has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.

Akuch Machuor was walking across the intersection at Fermor Avenue and St. Mary’s Road on Sept. 23, 2023, when Kelvin Mark Lavallee blew through a red light at high speed and hit her.

Lavallee, 27, had pleaded guilty to one count each of dangerous driving causing death, driving over .08 and leaving the scene of an accident.

Lavallee sat in the front row of the court gallery Thursday, his toddler daughter in his lap, as Court of King’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris sentenced him to four and a half years for the driving offences and another year for leaving the scene.

Machuor and her young children were just beginning a new life in Canada, Harris said.

“Then, in the blink of an eye, Mr. Lavallee’s actions took it away,” he said. “I cannot begin to imagine the lifelong impacts of this loss on her children and the extended family; her death has only begun to take its toll.”

Video played at a sentencing hearing in September showed Lavallee behind the wheel of his partner’s red Audi A4. He narrowly missed being struck by cars in both directions before he plowed into Machuor at high speed and continued driving without slowing down. Court was told the light had been red for 23 seconds.

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 that was agreed to be approximately .110 at the time of the collision.

An off-duty police officer who was driving behind Lavallee minutes before the crash 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.

Crown attorney Nick Reeves had recommended Lavallee be sentenced to seven years in prison, while defence lawyer Zach Kinahan urged Harris to consider a sentence of no more than 18 months in jail. He argued a penitentiary sentence would undo the work Lavallee has done to rehabilitate himself since his arrest.

Lavallee, who is Métis, had a difficult upbringing, with a childhood darkened by family substance abuse, dysfunction 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.

Harris said Lavallee is genuinely remorseful and has made great efforts to turn his life around, but in cases such as this, evidence of “good character” takes a back seat to denouncing an offender’s actions and deterring others from similar behaviour.

“Most people who kill someone when drinking and driving are remorseful” and “for the most part, are otherwise law-abiding citizens,” Harris said.

“But despite the toll that impaired driving takes on the lives of innocent people and their families each year, and despite the certainty of going to prison for doing so, citizens continue this irresponsible behaviour,” he said.

Harris prohibited Lavallee from driving for 10 years.

Lavallee received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to approximately four years.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca