Light time for deadly car thief

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This article was published 04/03/2011 (5356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba judge says she is powerless to impose a longer sentence on a chronic Winnipeg auto thief who has already been involved in two deadly car crashes.

The 19-year-old was sentenced Thursday to 55 months in jail for his latest offence in addition to 141/2 months already served, for which he was given double-time credit of 29 months. On paper, it’s a seven-year penalty. In reality, it’s far less and could see the high-risk offender back on the streets on parole before his 21st birthday.

Provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson accepted a joint recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers. She said many people are likely wondering why a much stiffer sentence can’t be imposed for a type of crime “every law-abiding citizen driving a motor vehicle is afraid of.”

Carlson said the sentence falls in line with precedents set in similar cases across Canada, and that she can’t overlook the man’s youth, his guilty plea, expression of remorse and prospects for rehabilitation.

“He is a prime candidate for rehabilitation,” she said. “He will have many years upon his release to be a productive citizen if he chooses to be.”

Carlson also imposed a 15-year driving ban on the man, saying, “the public needs to be protected from his recklessness.”

He was driving without a licence in a stolen vehicle and was under three separate probation orders not to be in a motor vehicle at the time of his 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.

“We are so very angry someone would take him away with such foolish actions, then run away like cowards,” Andrzejczak’s daughter, Elizabeth, told court last month in a victim impact statement.

“We don’t call this an accident. Considering the circumstances, it was as predictable as day following night.”

The case sparked calls for tougher car-theft penalties. Last year, Ottawa made auto theft 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 racing a stolen SUV carrying seven other teens down Portage Avenue. The SUV slammed into a cab, killing driver Antonio Lanzellotti and seriously injuring a passenger.

The youth, 16 at the time, was identified by police as the Silverado’s driver, but in court, he only admitted to being an occupant of the pickup, 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” after the sudden death of his grandfather. A judge sentenced him to another year of probation.

A co-accused youth who was allegedly in the Hummer’s passenger seat at the time of the December 2009 crash remains before the courts. The Free Press is not publishing the offender’s name in order to reveal details about his criminal past as one of the city’s most prolific car thieves.

www.mikeoncrime.com