The facts surrounding a fatal hit-and-run case on Vancouver Island where a drunk driver ran over a pedestrian and then deliberately misled police are so egregious that a B.C. provincial court judge is considering imposing a tougher sentence than the one Crown counsel is recommending.
On the two-year anniversary of 32-year-old Spencer Alexander Moore’s death, his family was forced to relive the details of the horrific incident in court at the sentencing hearing for Ryan Grob.
“It’s been a horrific day,” Moore’s common law sister-in-law Jessica Wallis-Moore told Global News.
“It was painstaking to have this happen on this date.”
In February, Grob, 36, pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death.
Detailing a pre-sentence report, defence counsel Jeffrey Arndt said his client takes full responsibility for the offence, admitting he was highly intoxicated on Aug. 24, 2019 after a night of drinking.
Grob drove his pickup truck home from a local pub and did not immediately remember hitting Moore in the middle of Hirst Avenue in Parksville.
Hours after the deadly hit-and-run collision, Oceanside RCMP seized a black 1999 Ford F-250 with a lift kit.
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Police also recovered surveillance footage of the truck leaving the area just before Moore was fatally struck.
Grob’s vehicle was gone when he awoke the next day.
When he learned RCMP had impounded it, Grob told police the truck had been stolen and was registered to someone else.
His alleged passenger, 32-year-old Travis Zackery Taylor, is also accused of giving a false statement to police in connection with the fatal collision.
Defence counsel is asking for a three and a half to four year prison sentence followed by a six year driving prohibition.
Crown lawyers are suggesting six years in prison plus a 10-year driving ban, citing Grob’s lengthy driving record which includes speeding offences and driving while prohibited, even after the deadly hit-and-run.
Provincial court judge Karen Whonnock hinted that she may consider an eight-year sentence.
“This is a very difficult decision,” Whonnock told the court.
“It is rare that I might go higher than what Crown has submitted but this might be one of those cases. There are a few aggravating factors like speeding and lying to cover it up.”
Whonnock also noted that “Mr. Grob is extremely remorseful and attending alcohol treatment.”
“Judges can, in rare circumstances, impose a higher sentence,” criminal lawyer Ravi Hira told Global News.
Hira, who is not connected to the Grob case, is a partner at Hira Rowan LLP and Queen’s Counsel since 1998. He said a judge has only sought a higher sentence once in the almost 40 years he’s been practicing law.
Judges don’t often deviate from the Crown’s sentencing recommendations and when they do Hira said, they need to be careful since they don’t know the difficulties Crown may have in proving certain cases.
“They also don’t know the negotiations that Crown and defence have entered into to garner a guilty plea, and thus save court time and the anguish of victims having to go through the testimony,” Hira said.
Moore’s loved ones say they’re already serving a life sentence.
“Spencer had an absolutely bright and beautiful future ahead of him that he will never get the chance to realize now because of one man’s decision to not call a cab or have a designated driver,” his brother Brandon said in a victim impact statement.
“He (Grob) showed his character by not turning himself in right away,” Wallis-Moore told the court.
“I have shown mine by being decent to someone who chose to get into a killing machine while fully intoxicated.”
“My feelings don’t match what the justice system allows,” Wallis-Moore told Global News when asked about the possibility of the judge seeking a higher sentence.
Arndt told the court his client wishes he could trade places with Moore, and that the only thing keeping him above ground is the hope of being reunited with his boys again.
Grob has also extended an invite to a restorative justice meeting with Moore’s family.
Grob’s sentencing will continue Sept. 1, when the judge will give Crown and defence the opportunity to make additional submissions.
Taylor, meantime, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30 on a charge of willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice.
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