Dealer guilty in fentanyl death
Hamilton man, 35, sentenced to three years, three months behind bars
Easton Hannahson battled addiction, yet he was optimistic he could one day overcome his demons.
Tragically, his dream was vanquished in July 2022 when the 26year-old St. Catharines resident met Krzysztof Sojka and took a fatal dose of fentanyl.
Sojka, a 35-year-old Hamilton man with no prior criminal record, appeared in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Tuesday and was sentenced to three years and three months behind bars on several charges, including criminal negligence causing death.
“Easton Hannahson was loved deeply and despite his demons and struggles he was a valuable member of our society,” Judge Deborah Calderwood said. “His death is a loss to us all.”
Calderwood described the case as having “360 degrees of sadness,” and that the young man’s death is an example of “our collective failure to meaningfully combat the national fentanyl crisis in Canada.”
Sojka told the judge his life has been a “virtual hell” due to his own drug addiction, but insisted he was not a “cold, heartless drug dealer.”
He said the victim had asked him for drugs, and he had merely accommodated his request.
If he had not provided the fentanyl, he believes the victim would have easily found someone else who could.
“Mr. Sojka sees himself as the unlucky one who obliged,” the judge said.
“He was not the victim here. It is Mr. Hannahson who is the victim, and members of his family, and it is Mr. Sojka who is criminally responsible for that death — full stop.”
The two men met by chance on July 22 at the Tim Hortons outlet on Welland Avenue in St. Catharines.
Strangers to one another, they went to a parking lot and smoked drugs supplied by Sojka.
Hannahson, who struggled with addictions to cocaine and alcohol, quickly lost consciousness.
Sojka tried to revive him by slapping him and dousing him with water.
He returned to the restaurant and asked staff and patrons if they had a naloxone kit. Narcan was administered but it had no effect.
Sojka also attempted CPR, but left with the victim’s debit card as soon as paramedics arrived.
“His behaviour in stealing Mr. Hannahson’s debit card as he lay dying, and trying to repeatedly use it thereafter, demonstrates a particular callousness on his part and a lack of insight into the harm he caused by providing Mr. Hannahson with the deadly fentanyl,” Calderwood said.
He told Niagara Regional Police that Hannahson’s death had “f---ed up his day.”
He took the victim’s debit card because he “owed him” for ruining his day.
Court was told Sojka had served 11 years with the Armed Forces and was employed, however, he struggled with addiction for many years.
The judge described opioid abuse as a national crisis.
“Opioids, particularly fentanyl, are ravaging our society and destroying lives and families and, as often said, is a scourge on society,” Calderwood said.
Between 2020 and 2021, Niagara recorded an average of 13 to 14 opioid-related deaths each month. In 2021, there were approximately 82 opioid-related emergency room visits per month — roughly three per day.
“The scope of the problem, the pain and loss caused by it directly and through its ripple effects, remains alarming and constitutes a public-health crisis,” Calderwood said.
“Its unbearable impact is tragically all too clear in the case before me today.”
Hannahson remained on life-support for eight days before he died. Several of his organs were donated through the Trillium Gift of Life Network Organ Donation.
“In the circumstances of his tragic death, Mr. Hannahson provided a gift to others that will have a lasting effect on their lives,” he judge said.
“In life, he made the decision to make that difference.”
Meanwhile, Sojka also entered guilty pleas to charges of trafficking fentanyl and robbery.
The robbery conviction stemmed from a June 2022 incident at a St. Catharines pharmacy.
Court was told the offender was out was on bail for the robbery offence when he gave the victim the fatal dose of fentanyl.
It is Mr. Sojka who is criminally responsible for that death — full stop.
DEBORAH CALDERWOOD JUDGE