MONTREAL – As a parent, it’s never the call you want to get – at 5 a.m. July 24, the Di Iorio family learned their daughter, Claudia, was in a coma, with half of her body paralyzed. Almost three years later, the family received a bit of closure, when convicted dangerous driver Laurent Raymond received a sentence of three years prison time.
“The irony is, we’ve been in some sort of prison for three years, and he’s going to prison for three years,” said Nicola Di Iorio, whose daughter Claudia was involved in the crash in the Town of Mount Royal.
Raymond was charged with multiple crimes that included racing and impaired driving, but pleaded in September to a single count of dangerous driving resulting in injuries. That night Raymond was running red lights, speeding, and putting his Acura into a “drift” at the time of the accident. Judge Jean-Pierre Boyer said in court that the 21-year-old was trying to impress three young women in his car at the time of the accident, and scolded him for lacking maturity.
Raymond wept profusely during sentencing, and begged the families of the victims for forgiveness as he read from a typewritten statement.
Claudia Di Iorio said that she felt for Raymond, and that she did not wish him ill.
“It’s not constructive in the end,” she said after sentencing. “We have to move on. Of course we never forget, but we can forgive at the end.”
The two other victims, Justine Rozon and Évelyne Méthot, also suffered crippling injuries. Rozon lost most of her small intestine, Méthot shattered her right leg, and told the judge she had become physically and emotionally unbalanced.
The sentencing was delayed by two months so Raymond could finish CEGEP, something Boyer said was done to help him reintegrate into society once he finished his term.
The victim’s families didn’t look well on the gesture.
“The last two months have been extremely painful for us,” the elder Di Iorio said. Waiting for a sentencing hearing, he added, was an agonizing experience.
“You don’t sleep well, you don’t eat well. You’re basically awaiting something to happen.”
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