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Decision information:
Abstract: Transcript of the Reasons for Sentence
Decision Content
R. v. Naedzo, 2007 NWTSC 68 S-1-CR2007000016
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
IN THE MATTER OF:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
- vs. -
WALTER SANFORD NAEDZO
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Transcript of the Reasons for Sentence by The Honourable
Justice J.E. Richard, at Behchoko in the Northwest
Territories, on August 28th A.D., 2007.
_________________________________________________________
APPEARANCES:
Ms. C. Gagnon: Counsel for the Crown
Mr. M. Hansen: Counsel for the Accused
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Charge under s. 255(3) Criminal Code of Canada
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1 THE COURT: Today, it is the Court's
2 responsibility to impose an appropriate sentence
3 upon Walter Naedzo for a drinking and driving
4 offence which occurred a year ago here in
5 Behchoko. There were tragic consequences to
6 Mr. Naedzo's crime, and he will have to live with
7 that for the rest of his life. But today is the
8 time to bring to a resolution, or a conclusion,
9 the legal proceedings, which resulted from the
10 commission of this crime, by imposing an
11 appropriate sentence, as Mr. Naedzo has pleaded
12 guilty to this crime and says that he wants to
13 take responsibility for what he has done.
14 Mr. Naedzo is 40 years of age and is
15 originally from Deline, however he has lived in
16 this community of Behchoko for the past 13 years
17 or so with his common-law wife Beatrice Quitte.
18 Mr. Naedzo has a Grade 10 formal education and
19 has worked in recent years in the construction
20 field both here in Behchoko and also at the Ekati
21 mine site.
22 Mr. Naedzo has a criminal record. He was
23 convicted of three property offences when he was
24 a younger man and still living in Deline. On two
25 occasions, in 1998 and in 2003, he was convicted
26 of assault here in Behchoko. And more
27 significantly, in July 1999 he was convicted in
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1 Yellowknife of a drinking and driving offence and
2 at that time he was assessed a fine and also
3 prohibited from driving for a period of one year.
4 The circumstances of Mr. Naedzo's crime are
5 that he was driving a pickup truck in which his
6 84-year-old grandmother, Cecile Tetso, was a
7 passenger, on the road outside of Behchoko at 3
8 o'clock in the morning on July 14th, 2006.
9 Mr. Naedzo was intoxicated. He picked up two
10 hitchhikers who later told the police that
11 Mr. Naedzo was consuming alcohol while he was
12 driving.
13 At one point Mr. Naedzo lost control of the
14 vehicle and it went off the road, through the
15 ditch, and into a nearby pond where it sank. The
16 hitchhikers got out and went to get help.
17 Mr. Naedzo and one of the hitchhikers got the
18 elderly Ms. Tetso out of the vehicle and the pond
19 and dragged her to the edge of the pond and
20 covered her with a blanket. Ms. Tetso was taken
21 to hospital in Yellowknife and, tragically, died
22 24 hours later at the hospital as a result of
23 this accident.
24 Mr. Naedzo's blood alcohol readings, taken a
25 few hours after the accident, were 200 milligrams
26 percent and 190 milligrams percent.
27 The Court has been advised in the
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1 pre-sentence report and in defence counsel's
2 submissions that this offender Walter Naedzo has
3 been guilt-ridden, emotionally distraught, and
4 full of shame since this tragic accident, as he
5 says he was very close to his grandmother Cecile
6 Tetso and indeed had invited her in July 2006 to
7 come from Deline to visit him in Behchoko.
8 In the days and weeks following the
9 accident, he turned to alcohol in an effort to
10 numb the pain that he was feeling. Eventually,
11 with the encouragement of his spouse and others,
12 he sought some professional assistance in his
13 healing process. I am told that earlier this
14 year he enrolled in the 28-day drug and alcohol
15 program in Hay River, that he successfully
16 completed that program, and that he has not
17 consumed alcohol these past three months.
18 Today Mr. Naedzo appears in court here in
19 Behchoko and pleads guilty to this charge, this
20 serious charge.
21 I accept that he is genuinely remorseful for
22 his crime, for what he did that caused his
23 grandmother's death. He says that he wants to
24 take responsibility for her death. I am satisfied
25 that he means that even if it means that he must
26 be incarcerated.
27 I believe him when he says that family is
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1 important to him and also when he says that he
2 will live with his role in the death of his
3 grandmother for the rest of his life.
4 The offence which Mr. Naedzo committed,
5 impaired driving causing death, carries a maximum
6 sentence of life imprisonment. There is no
7 minimum sentence for this particular offence,
8 which is a bit of an anomaly in the law, given
9 that impaired driving simplicitor does have a
10 minimum sentence. The sentence to be imposed
11 must be one determined in accordance with the
12 purpose and principles of sentencing as
13 prescribed by Parliament and in accordance with
14 earlier binding decisions of the courts.
15 I have considered carefully the submissions
16 of counsel. I have reflected carefully on the
17 principles of sentencing; in particular, the
18 principles of denunciation, deterrence, and
19 proportionality. And I have considered the
20 personal circumstances of Walter Naedzo,
21 including the fact that he seems to be otherwise
22 well-regarded by members of the community both in
23 Behchoko and in Deline.
24 Quite apart from the tragic consequences of
25 this crime, there are aggravating features.
26 Firstly, there is the fact that Mr. Naedzo
27 has previously been convicted of drinking and
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1 driving. Secondly, there are the high readings
2 of 200 milligrams percent and 190 milligrams
3 percent. Section 255.1 of the Criminal Code
4 requires that that fact be considered to be an
5 aggravating factor in the determination of
6 sentence.
7 On the mitigating side, there is
8 Mr. Naedzo's genuine remorse and also his plea of
9 guilty although, as I indicated to his counsel, I
10 do not view it as an early guilty plea.
11 Taking into account all of these matters and
12 circumstances, in my view the appropriate
13 sentence for this offender for this offence is a
14 term of imprisonment of 12 months followed by a
15 period of probation.
16 Defence counsel has submitted that a
17 conditional sentence, as that term is used in the
18 Criminal Code, would be appropriate in the
19 circumstances of Mr. Naedzo's case. The law
20 allows the Court to impose a conditional
21 sentence, that is, to serve a term of
22 imprisonment in the offender's home community,
23 subject to certain restrictive conditions, in an
24 appropriate case if the statutory prerequisites
25 are met.
26 The statutory prerequisites are set out in
27 Section 742.1 of the Criminal Code and they are:
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1 (1) that the offence is not one punishable
2 by a minimum term of imprisonment;
3 (2) that the sentence of imprisonment to be
4 imposed is less than two years;
5 (3) that the Court is satisfied that serving
6 the sentence in the community would not endanger
7 the safety of the community;
8 (4) that serving the sentence in the
9 community would be consistent with the
10 fundamental purpose and principles of sentencing
11 that are set out in the Criminal Code.
12 I am satisfied that the first three of these
13 prerequisites are met; however I am not similarly
14 satisfied with respect to consistency with the
15 principles of sentencing. In particular, I am
16 unable to say that a community-based sentence in
17 the circumstances of this offence and this
18 offender adequately addresses the objectives of
19 denunciation, or deterrence, or the fundamental
20 principle of proportionality.
21 Mr. Naedzo is not a youthful offender who
22 had a momentary lapse in judgment. He is 40
23 years of age. He has been to court before for
24 drinking and driving and was ordered off the road
25 for a year. Yet, he drank to the point of
26 intoxication and then got behind the wheel of his
27 pickup truck. He drove his pickup in an
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1 intoxicated condition while his elderly
2 grandmother was a passenger. He continued to
3 consume alcohol while he was driving, and tragic
4 consequences resulted.
5 His moral culpability is high. He
6 acknowledges that point in his own words to the
7 Court today. In these circumstances, his conduct
8 cannot be adequately denounced, in my respectful
9 view, short of punishing him with a period of
10 incarceration, depriving him for a time of his
11 liberty and of the comfort of his family and his
12 community.
13 I note the following statement in 1996 by
14 Chief Justice Lamer in the C.A.M. case referred
15 to by counsel regarding the principle of
16 denunciation.
17 The object of denunciation mandates
18 that a sentence should also
19 communicate society's condemnation
20 of that particular offender's
21 conduct. In short, a sentence with
22 a denunciatory element represents a
23 symbolic collective statement that
24 the offender's conduct should be
25 punished for encroaching on our
26 society's basic code of moral values
27 as enshrined within our substantive
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1 criminal law.
2 I also would repeat here what was said by
3 the British Columbia Court of Appeal in the
4 Johnson case.
5 Drinking-driving causing death or
6 bodily harm offences are senseless
7 crimes because they are so easily
8 avoided and at the same time they
9 are so easily committed by ordinary
10 citizens. They are unlike any other
11 crimes in the sense that nothing
12 much can be offered to justify
13 driving drunk. Crimes of theft may
14 be motivated by poverty, crimes of
15 assault may be motivated by fear,
16 but what excuse can be offered for
17 driving drunk except that alcohol
18 allowed the offender to lose all
19 sense of judgment. It is for this
20 reason that communities, rightfully,
21 express outrage when victims are
22 killed or injured as a result of
23 such conduct. It is for this reason
24 that both deterrence and
25 denunciation are legitimate
26 objectives to pursue for this type
27 of offence.
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1 Although I fully recognize, as I see that
2 the community of Behchoko does, Mr. Naedzo's
3 genuinely-felt guilt, shame and remorse, a
4 conditional sentence in the circumstances of this
5 case is not appropriate. The sentence must fit
6 the crime.
7 I note that the decision of the Supreme
8 Court of Canada in the year 2000 in the case
9 R. v. Proulx, considered to be a seminal decision
10 on the matter of conditional sentences, involved
11 a criminal charge very similar to the charge
12 before this Court today. In the final analysis,
13 the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the decision
14 of the trial Judge to decline to impose a
15 conditional sentence for reasons not unlike the
16 reasons that I have just mentioned.
17 Please stand, Mr. Naedzo.
18 Walter Naedzo, for the crime that you have
19 committed, impaired driving causing death, it is
20 the sentence of this Court that you serve a term
21 of imprisonment of 12 months.
22 In addition, I direct that you comply with
23 the following conditions prescribed in a
24 probation order for a period of 12 months
25 following your release from prison: keep the
26 peace and be of good behaviour; appear before
27 this Court when required to do so; notify your
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1 probation officer in advance of any change of
2 name, change of address, change of employment;
3 report to a probation officer within two working
4 days of your release from jail and thereafter as
5 required by the probation officer; abstain from
6 consumption of alcohol; submit to a breath test
7 upon the reasonable demand of an RCMP officer or
8 your probation officer; and that you perform 100
9 hours of community service during your 12 months
10 of probation, including speaking to school
11 children and other youth groups, as recommended
12 by your probation officer, about the perils of
13 drinking and driving and about your personal
14 experience that brought you to court today.
15 Finally, pursuant to Section 259(2) of the
16 Criminal Code, an order will issue prohibiting
17 you from operating a motor vehicle on any street,
18 road, highway, or other public place in Canada
19 for a period of four years commencing on today's
20 date.
21 In the circumstances, there will be no
22 Victim Fine surcharge.
23 Have a seat, sir.
24 Now, counsel is there any clarification
25 required? Crown?
26 MS. GAGNON: No, Your Honour.
27 MR. HANSEN: No, sir.
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1 THE COURT: Fine. I want to thank counsel
2 for their submissions.
3 Mr. Naedzo, I know this is difficult for
4 you, and being away from your family for the next
5 little while, but you will have to come to grips
6 with all of this and try and get on with your
7 life, and I wish you well in that endeavour.
8 THE ACCUSED: Thank you, Your Honour.
9 THE COURT: Close court.
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13 Certified to be a true and
accurate transcript pursuant
14 to Rules 723 and 724 of the
Supreme Court Rules,
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20 Lois Hewitt, CSR(A), RPR, CRR
Court Reporter
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