Gas-and-dash driver gets life in prison

Max Tutiven plans to appeal verdict and sentence given after 2012 killing

The SUV driver who hit and fatally dragged a gas station attendant in 2012 has been sentenced to life in prison and won’t be eligible for parole for 16 years.

Max Tutiven, 44, was found guilty by a jury in October of second-degree murder in the death of Jayesh Prajapati, 44.

On the night of Sept. 15, 2012, Tutiven drove his SUV to a Shell station at Roselawn and Marlee Aves., where Prajapati was working as an attendant. Tutiven filled up with $112.85 worth of gas before driving away without paying. Jayesh tried to stop him, but was hit and dragged by the vehicle for 78 metres down Roselawn Ave., court was told.

Tutiven fled the scene. He was arrested three years later in Montreal.

“Mr. Tutiven’s actions in callously killing a vulnerable victim, his lengthy criminal record and absence of any real prospect of rehabilitation call for a sentence that denounces the conduct, deters others and protects the public,” Judge Maureen Forestell said in her ruling Wednesday.

Defence lawyer Edward Sapiano told reporters outside court that his client will likely appeal the verdict and the sentence.

“Mr. Tutiven said all the people who think he’s a demon should make a financial donation to the family or their words aren’t worth much,” Sapiano said. Tutiven had pleaded not guilty. He testified that he heard a dragging sound under his SUV as he pulled out of the gas station, but he assumed it was a pylon.

At his client’s sentencing hearing last week, Sapiano described Tutiven as an “honest criminal.”

Tutiven has 69 past convictions for theft, assault and dangerous driving. He had fled two prior accident scenes and in 2008 had his driver’s licence suspended for life.

Tutiven had committed several gas thefts on other occasions leading up to killing Prajapati in 2012.

Prajapati’s widow Vaishali spoke briefly with reporters Wednesday. “What happened to my husband was really bad and I wouldn’t wish it to happen to anyone else,” she said through a translator.

She and their son Rishabh shared their victim impact statements Nov. 1, while Tutiven stared without expression straight ahead. “I haven’t been able to experience a single day with peace or happiness,” Vaishali wrote in her statement read aloud by Crown attorney Jenny Rodopoulos.

“My son has beared too much pain for a lifetime.”

Rishabh, 16, spoke in his statement of a loving and caring father who he will always miss. “I want to thank you for being the first person I ever loved,” he said.

At his client’s sentencing hearing last week, Sapiano described Tutiven as an ’honest criminal’