An Edmonton lawyer pleaded guilty Monday to a charge related to a fatal collision in 2018.
Shane Stevenson was originally charged with impaired driving causing death, being impaired while causing an accident that led to a death and failing to stop at the scene of a fatal accident in an April 2018 collision that left 16-year-old Chloe Wiwchar dead.
He pleaded guilty Monday morning to impaired driving causing death.
Wiwchar was heading home from her boyfriend’s home the night of April 15, 2018. She got off the bus and went to use a crosswalk at Kingsway and Tower Road when she was struck by a pickup truck. EMS responded to the scene and rushed Wiwchar to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The truck left the scene but was followed by an off-duty police officer who had stopped for Wiwchar to cross the road. Police arrested the driver of the truck a short time later, just north of 107 Avenue near 108 Street.
After hearing the guilty plea Monday, Wiwchar’s mother, Holly Lucier, burst into tears in the courtroom.
“I think today was probably one of the most excruciating days,” Lucier said outside the courthouse after the proceedings wrapped up.
“We’re relieved that we don’t have to go through trial and that we don’t have to watch him fight these charges, but in no way is this remorse. It’s two and a half years too late. Our family has suffered. We have suffered and we’ve watched the defendant take his time through these matters and it’s not right. It’s not fair.”
During a break at court Monday, Stevenson mouthed the words “I’m sorry” to the teen’s parents.
“Sorry would have been a week after, two weeks after, three weeks after, a month after — not two and a half years. That timeframe doesn’t say ‘I’m sorry’ to me,” Wiwchar’s father, Michael Wiwchar, said.
“I don’t care how many times he says he’s sorry. I don’t care how many times he says he’s guilty. Where was that 900 and some days ago?”
Lucier said it’s “too late to be sorry.”
“Too much time has passed, to stand today, on the day the trial was supposed to start, and be sorry. There’s no being sorry today.”
Stevenson has been out on bail since the collision and will remain out on bail until he is sentenced, which has been scheduled for Oct. 14.
With files from Sarah Ryan, Global News.
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