The 28-year-old man, who is 28 years old, wants to use the recent federal law C-5 to serve his sentence at home.
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“We must not send the message that any crime can be punished in custody in the community,” protested prosecutor Me Juliette Gauthier-Soucy, who imposed a prison sentence for a man convicted of a crime of negligence causing death.
On September 5, 2020, Maxime Fortin, who was working at night, went to three friends around 1:30 am to go to the ZEC des Nymphes in the Saint-Zénon region. The accused friends, who had left in the evening, were destined to go into Maxime Fortin’s back box.
Arriving at the section, one of the passengers, Jeremy Plourde, was thrown from the box and hit his head on the ground. Despite the incident and the fact that the victim was still conscious of vomiting, the accused continued on his way, leaving the victim with a friend, at the entrance to the ZEC register.
Returning to the scene of the accident, Jeremy Plourde’s condition deteriorated so much that he was pronounced dead at the hospital. To explain the matter, the accused claimed that he had fallen on a hump, in addition to two other witnesses who had a different version.
Photo from Facebook
A cross was placed at the site of the accident.
“He was trying his first, accelerating in curves and sliding,” one of his friends told the police. Most importantly, Fortin was not under the age of majority and had not consumed alcohol or drugs in any of the accidents, but he was still guilty of criminal negligence causing death because he was the driver of the vehicle.
The defendant testified that the months after the incident were difficult, he said he was devastated and consumed with remorse. “I didn’t think I could get it,” testified he, who pleaded guilty to the charge.
“Every day I thought for my friend,” said the judge. The drama is all the more tragic when the victim’s spouse was expecting another child at the time of the accident, a little girl he never knew.
The defendant’s attorney is arguing that new federal legislation C-5, which mandates return to the community for certain crimes, will ask a judge for a home prison sentence for his client. “It’s wrong to put these people in a box truck,” argued Mr. Garry Martin.
The DPCP prosecutor, who is seeking a prison sentence of two years, refuses to use the C-5 in a case where there was a death due to negligence. “Let’s go back to the discussion,” prosecutor Me Gauthier-Soucy pleaded.
She notably argued that the defendant had “pretty criminal behavior,” but Zec went on record after the case to ask for a prison sentence. The court took the case into counsel and will give its verdict in June.
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