Fatal hit and run driver gets 10 year prison sentence

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/12/2019 (1591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A B.C. man who ran over a Winnipeg grandmother in a stolen truck and left her to die has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Gater Browne’s actions “must be denounced in the clearest of terms,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice James Edmond said at a sentencing hearing Wednesday.

Browne, 40, pleaded guilty in September to criminal negligence causing death and failing to stop at the scene of a fatal accident in connection to the Aug. 3, 2017, collision that killed 62-year-old Marlene Eusanio.

Browne’s “atrocious” driving record includes four driving suspensions and a lifetime driving ban in B.C., evidence he has “learned nothing” from his past, Edmond said.

“I cannot begin to describe the loss suffered by the innocent family and friends of the victim,” the judge said.

Prosecutors had been seeking a sentence of 14 years, while defence lawyer Tom Rees urged Edmond to consider a sentence of seven years.

Browne — at the time banned from driving anywhere in Canada — was behind the wheel of a stolen Dodge Ram pickup truck and trailer when he cut off another driver on Marion Street, veered into the curbside lane and plowed into Eusanio as she stood by her car.

While it is not alleged Browne was impaired by drugs or alcohol or was speeding, “there is ample evidence to establish (he) was driving in a reckless manner and showed a wanton disregard” for the safety of others, Edmond said.

Browne did not slow down or apply his brakes. Eusanio was dragged a short distance before she fell to the ground and was run over by the truck and trailer.

He fled the area, and later called friends who helped him wash the truck and abandon it and the trailer separately on Winnipeg streets. Police recovered both the following day, and found body tissue in the grille and wheel wells.

Browne’s “callous disregard for the victim is particularly disturbing,” Edmond said.

He has been in and out of custody most of his adult life, and has multiple convictions for drug, weapon, and property offences. Court heard he has had a troubling life, including years spent living on the street, gang involvement, and watching his fiancé die in a drive-by shooting intended for him.

Browne fled to Saskatchewan two days after the fatal collision, where he was later arrested for an assortment of fraud- and property-related offences. In July 2018, he was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

The Manitoba sentence is on top of the sentence he is already serving.

Edmond urged Browne to follow through on promises to seek counselling and further his education. “I can only hope you use your time in custody productively,” he said.

Several of Eusanio’s family members were present for sentencing, but declined comment when approached by reporters.

Her husband, Jean-Louis, was with Eusanio when she was run down and comforted her until paramedics arrived. He earlier told court he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and had to take early retirement.

Court heard previously the couple had spent the afternoon at The Forks snacking on fish and chips before a spur-of-the-moment decision to stop at a dollar store on Marion Street ended in tragedy.

“She was the best human being I ever knew,” Jean-Louis said in a victim-impact statement read out by his son at an earlier sentencing hearing. “There are no words strong enough to say how I have been destroyed… Our family has been devastated. I miss her so much.”

The victim-impact statements of family members offer a “heart-wrenching reminder” Browne’s crimes bring with them “life-changing consequences that can’t be ignored,” Edmond said Wednesday.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca