Families want young Montreal man convicted in fatal drunk driving crash to be spared jail time

Sentencing arguments were held Thursday in connection with a fatal crash on the West Island in December of 2021 that killed 16-year-old Noah-Leewis Mercier.

The teenager, who was the step-son of CAQ MNA Marilyne Picard, was a passenger in the car that crashed on Highway 20 in Pointe-Claire.

The driver of the car was his best friend, Julien Segaux, who was drunk and drove way over the speed limit. He pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death.

The prosecution wants him to spend two years in jail.

However, during the sentencing hearing Thursday, both his stepmother, and his mother asked the court for leniency against the man responsible for Mercier's death.

"My son would have been the first to say it was his fault," said Mercier's mother, Marie-Christine Parent.

Even though drunk driving causing death normally carries an automatic jail sentence, both families are urging the court not to sentence Segaux to jail.

"Julien has suffered enough," Parent says, "and his own injuries from the crash will never allow him to live normally again."

But the Crown prosecutor argues that it's not so simple — the court has to follow the law, not the emotions of the families involved.

"The responsibility of the judge has to consider what is said in the Criminal Code. So he has to look for the denunciation. He has to look to deter the offender of committing other offences. So, of course, you have heard the testimony of the mother. But at the end, [the judge] has to consider the objective written in the Criminal Code," said prosecutor Sylvie Dulude.

Segaux will find out if he goes to jail and, if so, for how long, on March 6, 2025.