Accused traumatized after crash, court told

Kelowna man charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm

The Kelowna man accused of mowing down a newspaper carrier with a car appeared traumatized by the incident, a police investigator told a Kelowna court last Thursday.

Donald Brodie is charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, flight causing bodily harm and three counts of willfully resisting or obstructing a police officer.

Police say he sped away from an RCMP road check on Springfield Road and led Mounties on a chase through Rutland after midnight in December 2013.

The car drove off the road and slammed into Steve Kania as he delivered newspapers at Dundas and Dundee roads.

Kania, 42, was in a coma for more than a week. He suffered a serious brain injury and spinal fractures.

Cpl. Corey Kilborn, with the RCMP Southeast District, interviewed Brodie following the incident the morning of Dec. 6, 2013.

“His demeanour was somewhat defiant, especially at the beginning of the interview, when he was saying that he wasn’t the driver,” Kilborn said in B.C. Supreme Court.

Kilborn said Brodie appeared to be traumatized by the event.

“He did express that Mr. Kania’s head had come through the windshield and he was affected by it,” he said. “He was traumatized.”

Toward the end of the interview, Brodie appeared to express remorse for the incident, said Kilborn.

“He did display remorse through his tears in his eyes,” he said. “I interpreted it as remorse. His voice broke.”

Brodie also told Kilborn he had wanted out of the car, and that if he had gotten out this never would have happened.

Brodie was driving with a woman and Nathan Fahl, who police investigators first believed was behind the wheel and had been arrested for several offences.

In his first statements to police, Brodie said he was only a passenger in the car.

Weeks later, he told officers he was driving and made numerous public statements stating police had arrested the wrong man.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Fahl and indicted Brodie.

The trial is currently in a voir dire, a trial within a trial, to determine the admissibility of evidence in the case.

Brodie, who is currently in custody, will be tried by judge alone.