Three years and nine months to the day after 51-year-old Louise Whiten was killed by an impaired driver who was speeding down an Oakville street in the middle of the day, the Ontario Court of Appeal has revoked Kevin Hyde’s bail and told him he has 72 hours to surrender to Maplehurst Institution to begin serving his sentence.
“The outcome is exactly what we wanted. The appeal court threw the case out. It just goes to our family perspective that the appeal was just baseless,” Whiten’s widower Ching Mac said outside Osgoode Hall after sitting through the two-hour hearing Tuesday morning.
Appellate lawyer Delmar Doucette argued that the verdict was unreasonable and a new trial should be ordered. Failing that, Doucette asked that the six-and-a-half year sentence be reduced to three years given Hyde, 61, suffered a stroke in February.
Upon returning from the morning recess, Justice Ian Nordheimer told the court that the judges did not need to hear from the Crown prosecutor because the appeal on both the conviction and the sentence was being dismissed.
“The trial judge reached reasonable conclusions,” Nordheimer said, explaining that Doucette had not shown a basis for the court to interfere with any of these conclusions. “The appeal is dismissed, as is the motion to file fresh evidence.”
Nordheimer added that Doucette had also not demonstrated that the sentence was unfit.
At around 2:15 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2020, Whiten, a speech pathologist, wife and mother of two teenage boys, was killed when she was struck from behind while walking the family’s puppy Zack on a path next to Lakeshore Road East near Burgundy Drive. Zack was also killed. The driver of the Nissan Sentra that struck them both after leaving the road, Hyde, was arrested at the scene and charged criminally.
That night, after taking a “walk and turn test” by a drug recognition expert at the police station, Hyde was released from custody and has never spent any time behind bars since them.
In March 2023, Hyde was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison and a 10-year driving prohibition after being found guilty of impaired driving by cannabis causing death and dangerous driving causing death after a judge-alone trial that ended in November 2022.
At trial, Hyde’s lawyer argued that his client suffered from a medical episode called a “syncope,” which caused him to momentarily lose consciousness. The judge clearly rejected that defence.
Police testified that a number of beer cans, some empty, and a bag with 10.6 grams of cannabis were found in the trunk of Hyde’s car. It was also revealed that Hyde was travelling 90 km/h in a 50 km/h zone just five seconds before the collision. Hyde had a zero blood alcohol content but court heard that he was under the influence of cannabis at the time of the collision.
After the appeal was dismissed, Doucette asked that Hyde be allowed 72 hours instead of the normal 48 hours to surrender into custody. The court granted his request.
Whiten’s relieved widower will now focus on healing.
“It’s just a big relief. It’s finally over. It’s been three years and nine months to the day. I’m pleased it’s just completely over,” Mac said.
The appeal hearing comes just five days after NHL player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau, who also played professional hockey, were killed by a suspected impaired driver while they were riding their bicycles on a country road in New Jersey.
“The hockey players lost their lives last week. A tragedy. We’ve lost Louise. We’ve lost Zack. Our lives are just not the same even three years and nine months later,” Mac said. “It has a devastating effect on all of the families involved. My plea is just don’t do it. There’s lots of public transportation. There’s Ubers. There’s taxis. Just be smart about it and not have to create this kind of havoc for any families involved.”