Ten years is too harsh, defence tells appeal
Gas station attendant run over, killed as she tried to halt gas-and-dash
The 10-year sentence given to a Calgary man in the gas-and-dash death of a clerk who tried to stop him was excessive, a lawyer said Tuesday.
Defence counsel Balfour Der said the punishment handed to Joshua Cody Mitchell last year was too high when compared with other driving death cases.
Der told a three-member Alberta Court of appeal panel that Justice Alan Macleod double-punished Mitchell by finding Maryam Rashidi’s death was an aggravating factor in the case.
Der also said Macleod failed to consider Mitchell’s young age at the time of the crime.
Mitchell was convicted of a reduced charge of manslaughter in the June 9, 2015, death of gas station clerk Rashidi.
Mitchell, then 20, ran over Rashidi two days earlier when she jumped on the hood of his stolen pickup after he filled up at the 16th Avenue N.W. Centex where she worked and took off without paying.
He had been charged with second-degree murder, but jurors ruled he hadn’t intended the horrific injuries she suffered when he ran over her.
In final arguments in May 2017, Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak said Mitchell had Rashidi’s life in his hands and he chose to kill her to facilitate his escape.
“He had the power of life or death over Maryam, and he chose death,” Hak told jurors.
But jurors accepted submissions by trial lawyer Kim Ross that Mitchell didn’t have the intent necessary to be convicted of murder, and found him guilty of manslaughter.
Mitchell was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and an additional year for fleeing the scene.
The appeal judges reserved their decision.