Destroyed family in Beaufort: 16 years in prison for drunken driving

The exemplary sentence of 16 years in prison for Eric Legare, the driver who killed four members of the same family on the Dufferin-Montmorency highway in Quebec last summer, is being welcomed with relief by the victim’s father.

Read more: Dufferin Highway Tragedy: Abandoned by the organization

Read more: Road drama in Beaufort: Driver Legra was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison

“It has the highest subjective gravitational pull in Quebec in terms of the number of dead and injured,” Judge Jean-Louis Lemme explained in a stern ruling Friday.

In reference to the scale of this human drama, the judge referred on several occasions to the play of James Fletcher, 68, a widow who has been living for the past 47 years, her daughter Shelley Fletcher-Lemieux, 44, and her two grandchildren, Emma. Lemieux, 10, and his brother Jackson Fortin, 14.

Eric Legare was involved in an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol at a speed of 130 km / h.

“The only reason for this dangerous confrontation was the criminal behavior of the accused,” the judge recalled in the presence of about fifty relatives.

A relief father

Jackson’s father, Daniel Ford, had in mind 15 years in prison before hearing the verdict, saying he was “relieved” by the sentence.

“It’s a little more balm, a little bandage on my wounds, this is very strong news for people,” he said. Ford responded warmly.

He hopes the pressure is “relieved” once the procedures are completed, and he hopes he can begin his mourning nine months after the hurricane.

However, it is difficult for him to smile after this process.

“There’s nothing beautiful about it, nothing positive about what’s happening now,” he recalled.

Dominic Lemieux, Emma’s father and Shelley’s accomplice, was not convicted. He had a two-step reaction to that. “It is hard not to be disappointed with the longest sentence ever handed down for driving under the influence of alcohol in Quebec,” he wrote.

But Mr. Lemieux would still prefer Légaré to life imprisonment. If the death of four people is not worth such a sentence, he wondered under what circumstances the life sentence could be justified.

• Listen to the legal history of former Judge Nicole Gibiol on QUB Radio:

The most severe punishment

It is true that Eric Legare received the most severe sentence ever handed down for this kind of crime in the history of Quebec.

According to M^And Vincent Montmigney, his client, was “completely defeated, he was expecting it. ⁇

In 2017, Yves Martin, a re-driver, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the deaths of a couple and their four-year-old son.

Under different circumstances, Roger Walsh was sentenced in 2009 to life in prison for killing a Wellfield woman after driving under the influence of alcohol.

The judge, however, avoided acting with “intent to retaliate” by imposing such a sentence.

“So this is not an issue of revenge, but rather driven by emotion or anger,” he read.

Ruined family

Satisfaction with pain

“The most important decision in the province of Quebec for similar crimes, given all the facts, we can not hide our satisfaction with the decision taken.”

– DBCP Attorney, Pierre-Alexander Bernard.

“We’m not in a case where this is obviously unfair. It’s tough for a citizen. I very much doubt there are other procedures.”

– Eric Legare’s lawyer, Mr.^And Vincent Montmigney.

“Sometimes, I could just come home and knock on his door [à Jackson] “We won the war”

– Daniel Ford, Jackson’s father, 14, dies in crash.