Judge sends father who crashed car while fleeing police, killing son, to prison for 11 years

Arrested and released on bail following a high-speed crash that killed his 27-year-old son, Cainin Xavier turned to drugs to numb his pain and bought two stolen guns with the intention of killing himself, he told a judge Wednesday.

“After the accident, I didn’t want to live,” Cainin Xavier told provincial court Judge Heather Pullan, his words choked with tears. “Drugs were the only thing that could clear my head of the pain.”

Xavier, 48, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death, possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and weapon possession offences, and was sentenced to just over 11 years in prison.

Xavier disputed a submission by Crown attorney Ken Hawkins who argued Xavier’s possession of the firearms was tied to his involvement in the drug trade.

“The guns weren’t for protection — I bought (them) to end my own life,” he said.

Court heard on Sept. 12, 2022, Xavier was behind the wheel of a Pontiac Grand Prix, his son Syrus Irvine in the passenger seat and his son’s friend in the back seat, when police constables patrolling in the area of Munroe Avenue decided to pull the vehicle over for a traffic stop.

Xavier didn’t pull over, and instead accelerated, blowing through one stop sign and then a second four-way stop at the intersection of Munroe Street and Grey Avenue, where it was T-boned by a Honda Civic.

The Grand Prix spun around and crashed into a hydro pole.

The driver of the Honda Civic was not injured.

Police, fearing the Grand Prix was going to catch fire, safely removed Xavier and his son’s friend from the vehicle, but were initially unaware Irvine was in the front seat.

“Due to the damage to the Grand Prix, they had been unable to see anybody in the front passenger seat,” Crown attorney Melissa Hazelton told court.

First responders used the Jaws of Life to extricate Irvine from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead in hospital an hour later.

Police seized a duffel bag from the Grad Prix containing a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition.

Court heard the Grand Prix was travelling 81 km/h when it was struck by the Honda Civic, which had not come to a full stop at the intersection.

“I think it’s clear Mr. Xavier saw the Honda, knew it was going to enter the intersection and his decision was not to try and slow down, not to try and stop — it was to go faster and try to beat it through the intersection,” Hazelton said.

Xavier, who has a long criminal record, told court he was preparing to pull over when his son’s friend told him he had a gun in his bag.

“I wasn’t trying to run, I was trying to get my son’s friend out of a bad spot,” he said. “I panicked. I didn’t want my son or his friend to have a gun (charge) on his record.

“I decided to punch the gas that day instead of the brake and I think about that every day,” he said. “I honest to God didn’t think that car was going to run the stop sign. I thought I could make it.”

Xavier sobbed as he apologized to family members and described his son as his best friend.

“He was one of the only people who looked at me with no shame, and now he’s gone,” Xavier said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t wish it was me.”

Xavier was released on bail a week after the crash, then rearrested in January 2023 after police executed a search warrant at a Hargrave Street apartment where he had been living and seized nearly a kilogram of methamphetamine, 180 grams of fentanyl, $26,000 cash, two firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

When questioned by police, Xavier was “very co-operative and honest and took responsibility for everything found in the suite,” Hawkins told court.

Xavier was released on bail again in July 2023 and ordered to live with his parents. He disappeared in October 2024, was rearrested in May and remained in custody until his sentencing.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca