Drunk driver who killed 4 people eligible for unescorted absence next month

TORONTO — A man sentenced to 10 years after pleading guilty in a drunk driving crash that killed three young children and their grandfather will be eligible to apply for unescorted temporary absence from prison next month.

Nine-year-old Daniel NevilleLake, his five-year-old brother Harrison, their two-year-old sister Milly and the children’s 65-year-old grandfather, Gary Neville, died after the van they were in was hit by a speeding SUV driven by Marco Muzzo.

The children’s grandmother and great-grandmother were also seriously hurt in the Vaughan, Ont., collision.

Muzzo was sentenced in March 2016 to 10 years in prison after a judge said he must be held accountable for the irreversible suffering he’d caused in the September 2015 crash north of Toronto.

Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst noted Muzzo had already accrued a lengthy record of driving infractions — many of them for speeding — when he made the fateful decision to drink and drive after returning home from a trip to Miami.

Muzzo pleaded guilty to four counts of impaired driving causing death and two of impaired driving causing bodily harm and was to serve nine years and four months after credit for time served.

Correctional Service Canada says Muzzo will be eligible for day parole in November 2018, full parole in May 2019 and statutory release on June 18, 2022, and faces a 12-year driving ban, which will take effect on his release from custody.

Before sentencing, Muzzo apologized to the Neville-Lake family, saying he was “tortured by the grief and the pain” that he had caused.