Latest news with #victimImpact
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
American man pleads guilty to striking woman with his car in Windsor
An American man has pleaded guilty to striking a woman with his car in Windsor. Shermere Coulston-Hawkins, now 24, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing bodily harm and choking. From Philadelphia, Coulston-Hawkins had also been charged with attempted murder, forcible confinement and leaving the scene of an accident. On the evening of Dec. 23, 2023, the victim was struck by a car near Riverside Drive and Ferry Street. Police say however the woman had been previously assaulted by the man at a different location. '(Coulston-Hawkins) choked (the victim),' Assistant Crown Attorney Zach Battiston told the court Thursday. 'He ultimately struck (the victim) with his car and caused her injuries. And he just left her there.' Victim Injuries The woman describes her injures as 'extremely devastating', including head trauma and broken teeth. 'It is only by God that I am able to be present today considering I woke up unconscious after being struck by the offenders' vehicle,' the woman wrote in her victim impact statement. She has been diagnosed with a concussion, cognitive impairment and suffers migraines. The woman has undergone two surgeries and a bone graft. 'I live with a constant fear for my safety. I am no longer normal,' the woman wrote. Accused apologies At his sentencing hearing Thursday, Coulston-Hawkins apologized for his actions. 'I never intended to come to Canada and cause any problems,' Coulston-Hawkins told Justice Kelly Gorman. 'I intended to have a great time with (the victim) and spend quality time with her.' Court learned Coulston-Hawkins turned himself in to a police officer at the hospital when he tried to search for where she was taken the next day, Dec. 24, 2023. He has been in custody ever since. Coulston-Hawkins says he has been a 'model inmate' while incarcerated and he has 'taken advantage' of courses offered in jail and has found God. 'I'm severely sorry for the trauma that has been inflicted on (the victim) and her family. Lawyers differ on sentence Defence lawyer Evan Weber is asking for a jail sentence of 18 months, noting Coulston-Hawkins is a first-time offender in Canada and the United States and is likely to be deported when his sentence is served. The Crown on the other hand, is asking for a prison term of four to eight years. Justice Gorman will sentence Coulston-Hawkins on Aug. 6.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Man who beat pensioner to death over gate row jailed for 12 years
A man has been jailed for 12 years for killing his elderly neighbour in a row over shutting a gate. Trevor Gocan, 57, punched and kicked James 'Jim' O'Neill, 74, outside their housing estate in Covent Garden, central London, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury. He died in hospital two weeks later. Southwark Crown Court heard on Thursday how the two exchanged words after Gocan left a gate open on the estate. CCTV showed the confrontation lasted less than 90 seconds before Mr O'Neill was on the ground with serious injuries. Judge Sally-Ann Hales KC said told Gocan: 'Your unlawful actions on October 6 2024 caused the death of Jim O'Neill, a much-loved father and grandfather. 'You did not need to defend yourself – the truth is, you lost your temper and control. You walked away. Mr O'Neill did not. 'He was much older than you. 'In his shorts and Crocs, he presented no serious threat. Had you genuinely felt threatened, you could have walked away.' She said the attack, which included a punch and two kicks, carried a 'high risk' of causing grievous bodily harm or death. 'You did absolutely nothing,' she said. 'Your remorse, if genuine, has taken a long time coming.' The court heard a 12-year-old boy witnessed the final kick and watched as his mother and grandmother tried to help the victim. Mr O'Neill's widow, Sara, said she had been left 'completely devastated' and haunted by nightmares. 'Jim was not only my husband for 49 years but my soulmate,' she said in a victim impact statement. 'I feel depressed, often crying, haunted by dark thoughts. 'I struggle to sleep and have recurring nightmares witnessing the love of my life bleeding on the floor.' She said she had been forced to put their home up for sale and had not left the flat for weeks after the attack. Their son, Amos O'Neill, said he saw his father 'start to lose consciousness' and told the court: 'We never got justice in the courtroom.' Gocan denied wrongdoing but was convicted of manslaughter by a jury on May 1. Prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC said the violence went 'well beyond' a single punch and involved the use of a 'shod foot' – in a shoe or boot – as a weapon. Defence barrister Benjamin Aina KC said the attack was 'completely out of character' and added that Gocan had no previous convictions. However, he had received a caution in 2012 for pushing his wife. The court also heard how Gocan was a carer for his children, one of whom has autism. In a letter read aloud in court, he said: 'I am so very, very sorry. Words cannot describe the remorse and regret that I feel. 'I take full responsibility for what happened. 'I failed my children, religion, myself, and above all Mr O'Neill.' Judge Hales told him: 'I am satisfied that Mr O'Neill's death was caused in an unlawful act falling just short of GBH. 'You told the jury you dialled 999 – your phone bore no trace of this call. 'The truth is you did absolutely nothing.' Gocan, who wore grey prison-issue sweatpants, showed no emotion as the sentence was passed. He must serve two-thirds of the 12-year sentence in custody before he can be considered for release on licence. Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Jolley, from Specialist Crime South – who led the investigation – said: 'Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Mr O'Neill, who lost a loved one in shocking circumstances. 'The killer acted disgracefully, punching and kicking his victim in full view of members of the public – among them children – on a busy Sunday morning. 'The jury's verdict shows that casual, thuggish violence will not be tolerated on London's streets. There was absolutely no excuse for Gocan's conduct.'
ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
Three men sentenced to life in jail for second time over toolbox murder of Iuliana Triscaru and Cory Breton in 2016
Three men have been sentenced to life in jail for a second time over the "cruel deaths" of two people who were locked inside a toolbox and dumped in a south-east Queensland dam. Last week, Trent Thrupp, Stou Daniels and Davy Taiao were again found guilty of the 2016 murders of Iulian Triscaru and Cory Breton. The trio were convicted by a different jury in 2021 of those charges as well as torture but were awarded a retrial on the more serious offences last year. During both trials, the Supreme Court in Brisbane heard the bodies of Mr Breton and Ms Triscaru were found badly decomposed in Scrubby Creek in Logan. More than two weeks earlier, the pair had been lured to a Kingston unit where they were subjected to a violent attack over an alleged drug dispute. They were then forced into a two-metre-long metal toolbox, which was later submerged in the waterway, where it is believed they drowned. During a sentencing hearing on Thursday, several family members submitted victim impact statements. Mr Breton's daughter, who was only three years old when he died, said in her statement she looked at photographs to try and remember him. "But no matter how hard I try I can't," her statement said. Ms Triscaru's family said in their shared statement that her death had left an "unfillable void", and the retrial had brought "fresh agony" and re-traumatised them. "To relive every horrific detail, every moment of fear and despair… is an injustice that compounds our initial grief," the statement said. Justice Glenn Martin described the offending as "appalling". "It is difficult to imagine the immense terror that each must have felt over the hours leading up to their cruel deaths," he said. The three men were sentenced to mandatory life in jail and under Queensland legislation will have to serve at least 30 years in prison due to their being two murder convictions.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Yahoo
'The noise is gone': Family of murdered teen describes 379 days of grief at sentencing hearing
It's been 379 days since Ruth Visser held onto her 16-year-old son's bare foot at the end of his hospital bed as doctors and nurses worked frantically to save him after he was stabbed by a boy he'd never met. "That was the last time I touched my son," she wrote in a victim impact statement. "I held his foot as if to say, 'You're going too fast, wait for me.' "And then, time stopped." Dean Visser died from his injuries on June 6, 2024. A 17-year-old who can't be identified because he was a youth at the time of the stabbing pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last month. CBC News is identifying him as SK. On Friday, prosecutor Darren Maloney and defence lawyer Rebecca Snukal asked Court of King's Bench Justice Lisa Silver to impose the maximum sentence for a youth convicted of second-degree murder: four years in jail followed by three years under community supervision. The sentence will be handed down later this year. "Seven years for a life? Seven years for Dean?" Ruth questioned in her victim impact statement. "How do lawyers and judges balance a mother's broken heart against a number?" Details of the killing were outlined in an agreed statement of facts as part of SK's plea in May. Justice Lisa Silver heard that in 2024, Dean and SK "harboured animosity" toward each other because of a heated exchange of messages on Instagram. On June 24, Dean was walking with his girlfriend in southeast Calgary when he was spotted by SK, who began to follow the couple. At the time, the victim was carrying a hooded sweatshirt from the brand Bathing Ape, known as a BAPE. Dean's father said he was headed to a friend's house to return the hoodie. With his hood pulled up, SK ran up behind the couple and stabbed Dean. He shouted, "Give me that BAPE." Dean handed the sweatshirt over and SK ran away. When police arrested SK, he told them that when he spotted Dean on the street, he ran up and stabbed him out of "rage" because of their online feud. Dean's mother says she still sets a place for him at the dinner table. The void, she says, has left a silence in the home. "No more of his laugh, a laugh that split rooms open with light and settled in the floorboards like it belonged there," wrote Ruth. "Now that silence settles in its place. It lingers after dinner, it follows me into his room where nothing dares move." It's the little things, the idiosyncrasies of teenage boyhood, that hit the grieving mother the hardest, she wrote. "No more mid-day texts about a Timmy's order … no more late night pings asking for a ride home, no more wheelies on his dirt bike, no more doughnuts in the dust while we camped, the air full of grit and joy. "The noise is gone. Dean's chaos is gone. But the ache... the ache is ever present." Family dynamics, wrote Ruth, are forever changed as well, including her marriage. "Grief pushes and pulls us, shaping us differently. Some days we hold each other. Some days we can't even talk." Dean's father and sister both wrote victim impact statements Elizabeth Visser was 19 years old when her little brother was killed. "The house smells better and I hate it," she said. "It no longer smells like teen boys or locker rooms. What a dumb thing to miss." Elizabeth was about to turn 20 when Dean was killed. He'd bought her a gift that he never got to give her. It was a 1,500-piece puzzle. A homage to the hours spent "sitting at the coffee table in uncomfortable positions, doing jigsaw puzzles together." In his statement, Kevin Visser told the judge that his son was the type of person who "looked out for people." "He came home one day and made a meal for a homeless person he met on his travels around the neighbourhood," wrote Kevin. The relationship between Dean and Kevin was developing beyond father/son, into a friendship. "I lost more than a son, I lost a close friend."
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Yahoo
Driver who killed eight-month-old baby in pram has sentence reduced
A driver who struck and killed an eight-month-old baby in her pram outside a hospital has had her prison sentence reduced at the Court of Appeal, in what judges described as a 'truly tragic' case. Bridget Curtis pressed down on the accelerator of her automatic BMW 520d car after stopping outside Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on June 21 2023, causing it to mount a kerb and collide with the pushchair of Mabli Cariad Hall. Mabli, who had just said a final goodbye to her paternal grandmother Betty Hall, who was receiving end-of-life care at the hospital, sustained fatal head injuries and died in hospital days later. Curtis, who was 69 at the time of the offence and is now 71, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving last September and was jailed for four years at Swansea Crown Court in January. At the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, her barrister said the sentence was 'manifestly excessive' and should be reduced, stating that the case concerned a 'lapse of concentration'. Three senior judges ruled that Curtis's sentence was 'manifestly excessive' and reduced it to one of three years, while increasing her disqualification from driving from six years to seven-and-a-half years. Mr Justice Butcher, sitting with Lord Justice Bean and Judge Richard Marks KC, said: 'We say at once that this is a truly tragic case. 'We have read the very moving victim personal statements of Mabli's parents, expressing their grief at the death of their beloved baby. 'No one could fail to sympathise with them for the appalling loss that they have sustained.' Curtis, who attended the appeal via video link from HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire and sat in a wheelchair throughout, had no previous convictions at the time of the incident and had held a clean driving licence for more than 50 years. Her sentencing hearing at Swansea Crown Court heard that on the day of the collision, she had driven her daughter to an outpatient appointment at the hospital. When her daughter struggled to find her handbag in the rear of the car, Curtis unlocked the door and turned around to assist her. But as she did so, she pressed down on the accelerator of her car, which had been left running and was not in park mode. The car reached speeds of more than 29mph and travelled 28 metres in around four seconds, mounting the kerb of a grass seating area and causing Mabli to be thrown out of her pushchair. The car only stopped when it collided with a tree, having also caused injuries to Mabli's father Rob Hall. Mabli, the youngest of six siblings, received treatment at the Withybush Hospital, as well as hospitals in Cardiff and Bristol, dying in the arms of her parents on June 25. Her mother, Gwen Hall, told the sentencing hearing that her daughter was 'so bright, so beautiful, so full of love and life'. She said: 'She hadn't crawled yet. She had said 'Mama' for the first time only the day before. We had so much planned with her. 'It was nowhere near the time for her to be taken away from us. She was my baby. My eight-month-old baby.' John Dye, for Curtis, told Swansea Crown Court that she was a mother-of-four and grandmother of 10, who was 'absolutely devastated' by the incident. Appearing again for Curtis at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Mr Dye said: 'This is a tragic case, but the issue really was one of pedal confusion.' He continued: 'Objectively, this is clearly dangerous driving, but in terms of culpability, these four seconds of driving were more akin to, maybe not a momentary lapse, but a lapse of concentration.' Craig Jones, for the Crown Prosecution Service, made no oral submissions to the court. Reducing the sentence, Mr Justice Butcher said: 'True it is that the appellant did not intend to cause any harm, and true also that the mistake was of a short duration, but the driving was well over the threshold of dangerousness.' He continued that Curtis would have known that she had stopped 'in a busy area outside a hospital with potentially very vulnerable pedestrians around', and that four or five seconds 'is far from being a negligible duration'. He added that the court accepted that Curtis's remorse was 'genuine', stating: 'It was inattention and confusion as to which pedal she was pressing that caused this tragedy.'
