Man had been drinking and speeding in crash that killed Mountie: Crown

COLWOOD — The driver of a truck that sped through a red light and rammed a RCMP cruiser, killing the officer inside, had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit, the Crown says.

Crown attorney Tim Stokes told Kenneth Fenton’s sentencing hearing Wednesday that the man’s truck was estimated to be going as high as 90 kilometres an hour when it entered the intersection and crashed into Const. Sarah Beckett’s vehicle in April 2016.

Stokes said Fenton, who had been drinking beer and was distraught over the recent suicide of a friend, refused to provide a breath or blood sample, but police obtained a warrant within an hour of the crash to analyze blood taken from Fenton while he was at the hospital.

The court heard Fenton’s blood-alcohol reading was .287 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal blood-alcohol limit is .08.

At the time of the crash, Fenton’s truck was being followed by another RCMP vehicle after that officer noticed the truck’s tail lights were out, Stokes said.

He described the crash as an explosion of glass and smoke to a full courtroom in Colwood as people sitting in the gallery held tissues and wiped away tears.

Stokes said the truck hit Beckett’s vehicle on the driver side and an autopsy determined Beckett’s death was caused by blunt force trauma.

He said a witness at the accident scene reported hearing Fenton say “one stupid decision.”

Fenton pleaded guilty last month to charges of impaired driving and dangerous driving causing the death of Beckett, a mother of two boys who had recently returned to the West Shore RCMP detachment from maternity leave.

Beckett’s husband, Brad Aschenbrenner, read his victim impact statement to the court.

His hands shook and his voice was low and cracked at times when he told the court about losing the love of his life and the mother of their young sons, Lucas and Emmett.

“It’s true heartache, like my heart is actually breaking,” said Aschenbrenner.

He said the hardest thing after his wife’s death was telling his six-yearold “mommy wasn’t coming home.”

His youngest son was two years old when his mother died and “will have no memory of her at all,” he added.

He said the family tries to celebrate Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving, but “there’s always the undercurrent of sadness and loss.”

He has not been able to work, and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, he said.