One of the witnesses who was called was the driver of the car which actually struck Sgt Harnett.
The accident reconstruction expert testified that in his opinion, Ogunsanya could not have stopped in time to avoid hitting Sgt Harnett.
This is a bit odd.
The trial of the young driver in this case began in January 2022. Then it dropped off the news media.
He was convicted of manslaughter, apparently in 2023. Nothing in the news accounts explain why the trial took so long.
Although he was under 18 at the time of the event, the trial judge declined to sentence him as a youth and instead gave him a 12 year adult sentence.
I know nothing of Canadian practice, but that’s real common down here in Show-no-mercy Land.
When it comes to kids over about age 12, the protections of the youth justice system are seen as something that should be applied only to “good” kids who made a one-time youthful/stupid spur of the moment bad decision. Anyone showing signs of making a habit of bad decisions has “earned” the right to be treated as an adult. IOW, that wasn’t a dumb mistake; that was part of a pattern of criminally motivated behavior, whether or not the specific incident was pre-planned as a crime.
I’m not lauding this approach. Merely explaining it.
Here it is almost 4 years later, and the trial is still ongoing? I thought the charges get dropped automatically if it takes more than 30 months under the “speedy trial” constitutional right. I assume this means the judge is blaming the defense for most of the delay?
This was unusual facts. The guy was about 2 weeks shy of his 18th birthday at the time.
It’s odd and I’ve not found an explanation online.
The events happened New Year’s Eve, 2020-2021.
The trial started one year later, in January 2022, which is within the constitutional requirement.
There were a few media stories on the trial, and then it just disappeared. I tried to follow it after it started and there was just this silence.
It looks like he got convicted in April 2023, but no explanation that I’ve been able to find for the long gap.
Then he got sentenced in September 2023 and did not appeal. So it’s been over for a year.
I just happened to remember it and searched for an update.
Cite for “it’s common” please. Not my experience at all.