Ruinous chase nets 9-year term
Judge notes Donald Brodie’s ‘utter disregard’ for lives of others in sentencing him for police chase that put paper carrier in coma
Donald Brodie has been sentenced to nine years in jail for fleeing from police in a high-speed chase in Kelowna and seriously injuring a newspaper carrier.
On Sept. 22, Justice Martha Devlin found Brodie, 38, guilty of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and flight from a police officer causing bodily harm.
Shortly after midnight on Dec. 6, 2013, Brodie sped away from an RCMP roadblock on Springfield Road and led Mounties on a chase through Rutland.
The car drove off the road and slammed into Steve Kania as he delivered newspapers at Dundas and Dundee roads. Kania, 45, lay in a coma for more than a week. He suffered a serious brain injury and spinal fractures.
Speaking directly to Brodie in court Wednesday morning, Devlin said she found his conduct on the night in question to be “extremely blameworthy.”
“You demonstrated utter disregard for the lives and safety of others as you drove through the residential streets at a high rate of speed,” she said. “Unfortunately for Mr. Kania, your negligence has resulted in devastating and lifealtering injuries.”
Defence lawyer John Gustafson argued Brodie was making efforts to change and was remorseful for his actions.
However, Crown prosecutor David Grabavac argued recent actions demonstrated otherwise.
On Oct. 2, 2017, Brodie pleaded guilty to a corrections violation after he assaulted another inmate on Sept. 30, using a razor blade to cut the right side of the victim’s face and neck.
He received 30 days in segregation as a result of the offence.
A pre-sentence report concluded, “Mr. Brodie’s violent behaviour is not limited to the community; it extends to the custodial setting, where despite being in an environment of extreme structure and supervision, he still poses a risk to the safety of others.”
During the past 18 years, Brodie has racked up 43 criminal convictions, 38 of which predate the Dec. 6 chase.
He has received jail sentences for every one of his convictions since 2004, said Devlin, adding he has never spent more than six months at a time in the community between jail sentences.
He had been out of jail for 46 days before the police chase around Kelowna.
“It is evident that the sentences he has received in the past have had no effect on deterring him from his criminal behaviour,” said Devlin. “The only way to ensure he will not continue to endanger the public as he has is to incarcerate him for an extended period of time.”
Devlin accepted Brodie appeared genuinely remorseful for the injuries caused to Kania, but did not accept that he was remorseful for his actions.
Nathan Fahl, who was in the vehicle with Brodie during the chase, was originally charged with the offences as the driver of the vehicle, but charges against him were dismissed after Brodie sent multiple letters to police and the media confessing he was the driver.
On June 14, 2014, Brodie was charged with the offences.
In court under oath, Brodie pleaded not guilty and testified he was not the driver and the letters were an attempt to deflect blame away from Fahl.
Devlin said she did not believe Brodie’s evidence that his confessions to being the driver were false.
“I find Mr. Brodie’s evidence to be a convoluted and tangled web of lies and deception, within which there are glimmers of truth,” she said before finding Brodie guilty.
Gustafson argued Brodie abides by a different set of values, referencing a gangster code Brodie claims to follow.
Devlin did not accept this argument.
“Mr. Brodie does not set the rules,” she said. “There is no exception to telling the truth in the courtroom under oath because of the Gcode or any other excuse.”
The main considerations Devlin took when sentencing were deterrence and denunciation, she said.
“Such behaviour must be denounced as unacceptable. The public must understand that flight from police and dangerous driving causing bodily harm are extremely serious, and such behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Devlin acknowledged the sentence may not deter Brodie from future criminal activity.
“I am not confident the sentence I impose today will have any impact on him,” she said.
Devlin sentenced Brodie to nine years in jail for flight from police causing bodily harm and five years in jail for criminal negligence causing bodily harm, to be served concurrent to the nine-year sentence for a total of nine years.
Brodie served 90 days in pretrial custody, and Devlin granted him credit for 90 days, shortening his jail time to eight years and nine months, to be served consecutive to any jail sentence he is currently serving.
He also received a lifetime weapons prohibition, a 10-year driving prohibition, effective on his release date, and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of $400.