Drunk driver gets five years for fatal crash

‘A two-time loser on a drunk-driving charge, he did not learn from that’: judge

Increasingly harsh punishments will never be enough to eradicate the “senseless crimes” of drunk driving, a Calgary judge said Tuesday, in handing down a five-year sentence in a crash that killed one person and injured three others.

“This is the type of crime that cuts across society,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Earl Wilson said, in agreeing to a joint Crown and defence sentencing submission for admitted drunk driver Alexander Shaun Soop. “There is no way it can ever be stopped.”

Soop, 32, earlier pleaded guilty to charges of impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm in connection with an Easter Sunday, 2016, crash.

Soop was heading westbound on Glenmore Trail S.W. in the late afternoon of March 27, 2016, when he lost control of the Dodge Ram pickup truck he was driving and slammed head-on into an oncoming Jeep.

Roger Holmes, 62, was ejected from his vehicle and died at the scene, while his wife, Jayne, was badly injured.

Two people in a second vehicle that Soop struck, Richard and Bonnie Couture, were also injured.

In April, Crown prosecutor Elaine Ahn said Soop had a minimum of 247 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood in his system, more than three times the legal driving level.

Wilson noted that far too often it’s the drunk driver who emerges uninjured while others are injured or killed. “The drunk violating the law who caused it all lives,” he said. “There is a … cruel reality to this.” He also said such crimes are also often committed by otherwise law-abiding citizens, but said that wasn’t the case here.

Soop had two prior drunk-driving convictions and was a disqualified driver at the time.

“A two-time loser on a drunkdriving charge, he did not learn from that,” Wilson said.

But he also said there were mitigating circumstances to justify a sentence of five years, instead of more. One of those was Soop’s remorse, which included a courtroom apology to family and friends of his victims who packed the courtroom.

“I’m sorry for what I did, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” Soop said, looking to those in the courtroom gallery, including Jayne Holmes.

“I’m hoping that you can forgive me, as I haven’t forgiven myself.”

Wilson said another sign of Soop’s remorse was the fact he tried to kill himself while drinking in April 2017.

Defence counsel Sean Fagan said the offender had a tragic upbringing, being exposed to alcohol from the time he was a toddler.

Along with the prison term, Soop is prohibited from driving for 20 years after his release from jail, although he can apply to the Interlock program after 10 years.