Drunk driver has day parole extended
Marco Muzzo, who was sentenced to a decade behind bars for a drunk- driving crash that killed four people, has had his day parole extended for another six months, the National Post has learned.
“It is the Board’s opinion that you will not present an undue risk to society if released and that your release will contribute to the protection of society by facilitating your reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen,” says the Parole Board of Canada’s decision, released Tuesday.
Muzzo, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to four counts of impaired driving causing death, and two of impaired driving causing bodily harm, was first released on day parole in May 2020, having served four years of his jail sentence. On Nov. 3, the parole board extended his day parole, and called for a parole hearing to discuss full parole.
“The Board has questions related to your offending and community behaviour that it would like to explore with you in a hearing setting,” says the decision.
The impaired driving charges stem from September 2015, when Muzzo returned to Toronto on a private jet; he had flown in from Miami, where he’d been attending his bachelor party. He picked up his Jeep Cherokee, and drove towards his home in Woodbridge, despite having awoken in Miami feeling dazed and consuming three or four drinks on the plane.
Muzzo blew a stop sign in Vaughan, hitting the driver’s side of a minivan. The crash killed nine- year- old Daniel Neville- Lake, his five- yearold brother Harrison, and two-year-old sister Milly. The children’s 65-year-old grandfather, Gary Neville, was also killed.
The children’s grandmother and great- grandmother were injured in the crash.
There were several restrictions placed on Muzzo when he was first let out on day parole, including avoiding bars and abstaining from alcohol and avoiding certain areas in the region of Toronto. He has been living in a halfway house; he will remain there and the restrictions also remain in place.
“Since release, there have been no known breaches of any conditions of your release,” says the decision.
The date of the full parole hearing — full parole was recommended by Correctional Service Canada, the board says — has not yet been set.
Jennifer Neville- Lake, the mother of the children killed and daughter of Gary, said in a statement posted to Facebook that she was “not surprised by their decision as I have come to expect little from the justice system overall.”
“As the man who destroyed my family gets closer to joining his, I face a holiday season that I no longer celebrate,” she wrote. “Now I go back to the endless waiting. For the date of the hearing. For the hearing. For the decision. For the disappointment I expect will come.”