She ‘purposely set out to get drunk,’ drive
At 11:03 p.m., Wright drove her 2014 Nissan Rogue out of the parking lot. Minutes later, she struck Graves, 63, who was walking with a co-worker on the north sidewalk of York Mills Rd. near Don Mills Rd. They were in Toronto that week for work. Graves was thrown onto the hood of the car and propelled to the grass a few metres away, where she died. The vehicle sped away at a high rate of speed.
Wright drove her car to a side street and slept. In the morning, she called a friend and told him that she believed she had hit a pole. On Oct. 5, at11:34 a.m., she called the owner of a body shop to fix her vehicle.
At no time did she report the accident. But prosecutor Matthew Bloch did not dispute that Wright was unaware that she had struck a person.
He withdrew a charge of leaving the scene of the accident.
Police recovered a fog-light grille from the scene and later matched it to Wright’s vehicle. The victim’s blood was on the hood near the cracked windshield.
The judge said Wright’s “moral culpability” was high because this was not a case of “one too many after a Christmas party,” but rather she had “purposely set out to get drunk with the full intention of driving.”
Nevertheless, he said there were mitigating factors including her guilty plea, no prior criminal record and efforts to come to grips with alcohol abuse.
“I’m happy that we resolved this quickly. I hope everyone involved can finally build their lives. It’s a tragic, tragic case,” said her lawyer, Clayton Ruby.