Emotional testimony was heard at the Longueuil courthouse Tuesday as a grief-stricken aunt described the outcome of a fatal hit-and-run three years ago south of Montreal.
Four witnesses are expected to speak at a sentencing hearing for Harmandeep Singh, a truck driver from Brampton, Ont. who was caught on camera plowing his truck into a Chevy Cavalier and slamming it into a lightpost on Aug. 3, 2017. Four people were inside the vehicle at the time.
Rodrigo Ariel Garcia Ramos, a 21-year-old tourist from Mexico, was killed instantly, while the three others, all family members, have since recovered.
Singh fled the scene, leaving his truck in a yard in Lachine and boarding a plane to India. He was on the lam until Quebec provincial police arrested him at Montreal's Trudeau airport when he returned in January 2018.
was saying that he panicked. He did not have that specific intent, that's what he tried to argue at trial. But Justice Leblanc did not agree," said prosecutor Francois Parent.
Singh was convicted in June of failure to stop at the scene of a fatal crash.
"Our client is accused and has been convicted of fleeing the scene. And we are talking about an accident, a lapse of judgement, but an accident nonetheless," said defence attorney Adam Ginzburg.
Judge Dannie Leblanc heard testimony Tuesday from Alicia Galindo, the aunt of Garcia Ramos, who delivered a victim impact statement.
Galindo said she received a text message on the morning of the incident, saying that some members of her family were involved in a serious crash.
When she arrived at the hospital, the scene she described was bloody and grisly. She said many of her family members were unconscious for days after the crash. One family member that survived needed three and a half months of rehab before he could simply sit upright.
"They have many, many troubles, physically and mentally," she said, adding that the outcome was worse for her nephew. "He cannot live a second time. He's not here."
