MONTREAL – A Quebec teen who killed a toddler with his car on his 18th birthday has lost an attempt to overturn his conviction.
The Quebec Court of Appeal has upheld the guilty verdict against Brandon Pardi and, in the same judgment, has rejected an attempt by the Crown to appeal the sentence handed down in the case — two years less a day to be served in the community.
Pardi’s case gained national notoriety when he fought to be tried as a juvenile because the crime occurred on his first day as an adult.
The Supreme Court of Canada, however, refused to hear his case and Pardi was tried as an adult.
The victim, three-year-old Bianca Leduc, was struck and killed as she hung Halloween decorations on a babysitter’s lawn in a residential neighbourhood just west of Montreal on Oct. 31, 2007.
Pardi’s lawyer was appealing the conviction on dangerous driving causing death, handed down in December 2011, claiming the judge had erred by ignoring certain factors in his judgment.
The Crown, for its part, felt the sentence handed down by the judge was inappropriate in June 2012. It had argued for a four-year jail term.
Arguments on appeal were heard from both the Crown and the defence last month.
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