Crown to seek ‘substantial’ jail time for Tobin

OTTAWA – The Crown says it will seek "substantial" jail time after John Tobin, son of former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin, pleaded guilty Tuesday to impaired driving causing death.

The story behind the charge – an agreed statement of facts in court language – was of a fun and booze-filled Christmas celebration among close friends that in the blink of an eye turned into a night terror and tragedy.

Tobin, cavorting in a rented pickup truck on the ice-coated roof of a downtown Ottawa garage, ran over his good friend Alex Zolpis early in the morning on Dec. 24 and by some miracle narrowly avoided crushing another friend, Owen Seay.

When his case ends with his sentencing in late summer he faces jail time – "a substantial jail term" is what assistant Crown attorney Mark Moors intends to ask for.

The statement of facts, agreed by both defence and prosecution, is a compilation of witness reports and hard facts.

Tobin, 24, had consumed more than twice the legal limit of alcohol. Two readings taken at the Ottawa Police headquarters shortly before dawn on Christmas Eve registered 190 and 175 milligrams in 100 millilitres of blood respectively. The legal limit is 80 in 100.

Tobin, Seay, Zolpis and another friend, Scott LeBlanc, met at 10 p.m. at The Sir John A. Pub before driving to the Byward Market where they met Andrea Posternack, Nicole Thompson-Walker and Scott Rensch at The Brig Pub. They were all drinking alcohol.

Despite the sub-zero temperatures, the group decided to return to Tobin’s pickup truck, listen to music and share a bottle of whiskey.

Shortly afterwards, Tobin decided to drive his truck from its spot in the mid-level of the multi-storey parking lot to the exposed rooftop, which was covered by a sheet of snow and ice.

"Mr. Tobin then spun the pickup truck around doing a spinning manoeuvre some witnesses described as a donut," reads the statement of facts. "While doing the donuts, Andrea Posternack was terrified and was telling Mr. Tobin to stop. Mr. Tobin stopping the pickup truck and Posternack, Thompson-Walker and Rensch got out of the pickup truck and moved away from it.

"By the time the pickup truck came to a rest, Owen Seay was half underneath it, with his feet sticking out from the driver’s side, between the front and rear tires. Mr. Tobin and Mr. Leblanc pulled him out and someone said how lucky he was to be alive."

It was then, they noticed that Zolpis had not been so fortunate.

"The three men realized that Alex Zolpis was missing," it continues. "One of them looked under the pickup truck and saw Mr. Zolpis’s body and clothing caught in the driveshaft. The three men immediately tried to free Mr. Zolpis. They were panicking and screaming for someone to give them a knife.

Three of the friends ran out to the street and flagged down a police car. While they were gone, Tobin threw the whiskey bottle off the side of the parking garage and would insist to police that he had drunk only "one Guinness."

Zolpis, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene and a sobbing and emotional Tobin was arrested, but was too distraught to speak.

In a subsequent statement to police, Tobin said he had moved the truck to the roof to have some fun and play loud music and intended to leave it there for the night. He had no clue how Zolpis had ended up under the truck but admitted he had been acting stupid.

"I know I am responsible for what’s happened," he said. "I want to do the right thing for everyone. I drank, I drove, now someone’s dead. He was a good friend."

How Zolpis ended up under the truck was a question none of the witnesses could answer.

Thompson-Walker described Tobin’s driving as "goofing off – a stupid, horrible decision."

Posternack, in the truck’s back seat, was "freaking out" and "beside herself with fear."

Seay said he was so drunk everything was a blur. He couldn’t remember how he came to be under the truck and had no clue how Zolpis came to be there either.

Leblanc told police he couldn’t remember anything.

Rensch, a law student in Florida, said he recalled seeing Owen Seay fall from the front passenger door but didn’t know whether he fell or jumped.

Tobin’s lawyer, Norm Boxall, told the Ottawa Citizen after Tuesday’s court appearance that the agreed facts of the case were the fullest account possible of what happened.

"It clearly indicates that some questions can’t be answered," he said. "It’s important to know that he entered a plea of guilty as early as possible and as he said to police that very night ‘I want to do the right thing for everyone.’ That’s the basis for his plea of guilty and why it was done as soon as possible."

Members of the Zolpis family who were in court declined to comment.

Justice Lise Maisonneuve ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared on Tobin whose next court appearance will be Aug. 4.