Teen guilty of murder in death of officer
A boy who was 15 at the time York Regional Police Const. Garrett Styles was dragged to his death has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the case.
The name of the convicted man, who is now 19, is under a publication ban owing to his age at the time of the incident. He sat motionless in a wheelchair in a Newmarket courtroom as the verdict was read out Thursday night.
The tragic incident occurred on June 28, 2011, in East Gwillimbury when Styles, 32, attempted to pull over a speeding minivan with four people inside.
At one point, Styles reached into the van to grab the keys. The van lurched forward, dragging him 300 metres before it hit a ditch and rolled on top of him. Styles was crushed to death. The young driver was left a quadriplegic.
Styles’s defence team had argued it was the force of the officer’s lunge into the van that caused the accused to press the gas pedal. The Crown insisted the driver knew what he was doing when he drove away from the traffic stop, something that is enough to result in a first-degree murder verdict when a police officer is involved.
“What did he think was going to happen? Garrett had half his body out of a van weaving back and forth at a high speed,” said prosecutor Rob Scott.
The jury began deliberations on Monday. Although the Crown made an application at the beginning of the trial to seek an adult life sentence, it’s not yet clear if they will.
The jury in the emotional trial heard that Styles, 32, had decided to impound the Dodge Caravan after pulling it over. The Crown alleged that the teen driver, afraid of his parents finding out what he’d done, tried to flee and deliberately drove 300 metres with Styles hanging out of the van before crashing.
The teen might have been pushing the accelerator believing it was the brake, the defence lawyer James Lockyer suggested.
“There was a palpable sense of panic and fear in that vehicle,” Lockyer argued, noting the driver’s age. “It’s not hard to imagine that, amidst all this, he did hit the wrong pedal.”
The mother of the defendant lost control of her emotions as the jury found the young man guilty, screaming “no” as she was led from the courtroom.