Crown and defence lawyers delivered closing arguments on Tuesday in the impaired driving trial of a Calgary man accused in a 2016 crash that killed his 17-year-old daughter.
Michael Shaun Bomford faces six charges in connection with the rollover on McKnight Boulevard that claimed the life of his daughter Meghan Bomford and seriously injured her friend Kelsey Nelson.
Prosecutors told court they would not seek convictions on two of those charges — impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm — as the evidence could not show Bomford’s impairment caused the crash.
Lawyer Scott Wilson said the Crown would go ahead with the other four charges of dangerous driving causing death, dangerous driving causing bodily harm, over 80 causing death and over 80 causing bodily harm.
An over 80 charge is based on the measurement of a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC).
During the trial, an expert testified that a blood sample taken from Bomford in hospital shortly after the crash showed he had a BAC of a minimum of 226 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood — almost three times the legal limit — when the rollover occurred.
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No eyewitnesses called at trial were able to confirm the 54-year-old was behind the wheel of his Jeep Liberty when it lost control and all three occupants were ejected.
“The only way we can determine who was driving is by looking at the text messages,” Wilson said.
The Crown argued that text messages sent from Meghan to her mother just minutes before the crash prove Bomford was driving at the time.
In those texts, Meghan complained about her father being impatient and annoyed about having to pick her up and drive her on the day of the crash.
In his closing submissions, defence lawyer James Wyman argued those text messages did not conclusively prove his client was driving at the time of the crash, pointing to a six-minute gap between the last text sent by Meghan to her mother and when the vehicle rolled.
“None of us were there. We can’t say he was driving at the time of the collision,” Wyman said.
“It’s not outside the realm of possibility” that Meghan or her friend could have been driving, Wyman added.
Nelson suffered a brain injury and has no recollection of the crash.
Justice Kristine Eidsvik will hand down her decision in January.
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