SENTENCED
No custodial sentence, but judge says quadriplegic is ‘a prisoner in his own body’
A quadriplegic young offender is spared jail in the murder of York Const. Garrett Styles.
A quadriplegic man was spared jail Monday as a Newmarket judge handed down his sentence for the first-degree murder of Const. Garrett Styles.
Justice Alex Sosna decided to avoid a custodial sentence altogether and his ruling gave the accused, only identified as S.K. because of his age at the time of the slaying, a nine-year community-supervision order, during which he can remain at his family’s Newmarket home.
Although the Crown was requesting that S.K. be placed in an opencustody residence in Milton for five years, the judge said he was not satisfied the facility could properly care for the19-year-old’s significant medical needs.
“A custodial sentence will not make him more accountable,” he said, noting just how precarious S.K.’s medical condition is. “He’s a prisoner in his own body and is already serving a life sentence.”
After the verdict, a York Region OPP news release quoted Melissa Styles, Garrett’s wife, denouncing the sentence: “My children and I have been given a life sentence to have to live without Garrett and we were not found guilty of anything. This sentence is a huge letdown.”
Garrett’s father, Garry Styles, himself a former sergeant with the same force, added in the same release: “It appears to us that a police officer’s life means nothing in the eyes of justice. As a former police officer, I find the sentence imposed to be lacking and opening the door to further tragedies involving police officers just doing their sworn duty.”
The trial has been a contentious one since the beginning, not only because of the circumstances of the crash that lead to Const. Styles’ death, but also the age of the offender and the condition S.K. was left suffering from.
It was on June 28, 2011, that both families’ lives would be forever altered.
After planning with acquaintances over social media to go out together that night, S.K., then 15, would take his parent’s minivan and pick up three friends.
The four ended up joyriding around Newmarket, stopping at Tim Hortons, the Upper Canada Mall parking lot and other spots, usually smoking cigarettes before moving on.
Hours after originally taking out the vehicle, while his parents slept, S.K. decided to drive the only female passenger home. While on their way to her East Gwillimbury home, at 4:30 a.m., the car was stopped doing almost 150 km/h — nearly 50 km/h over the limit.
Styles then approached the van and advised S.K. — who had been caught illegally driving the minivan by police before — that it would have to be impounded.
After initially giving a false name and address and then begging the officer to let he and his friend go, the car took off with Styles on S.K.’s lap and the door wide open. Some 300 metres later, the vehicle veered to the l eft, hit a ditch, flipped, rolled and landed on Styles, crushing him.
In his final call to dispatchers, he expressed worry about the other youths in the vehicle before his death.
In the front seat was S.K. who was left a quadriplegic, with some movement in his arms, but little in his hands. Along with S.K.’s identity, the names of the other three youths then in the vehicle remained secret up until now because they were young offenders at the time of the crime. However that privacy may now shift, after Justice Sosna further sentenced S.K. to speak at three events annually about the cause of his injuries, the results and the effect on those around him, to act as a deterrent. When a jury found
S.K.
“My children and I have been given a life sentence to have to live without Garrett and we were not found guilty of anything. This sentence is a huge letdown” MELISSA STYLES WIDOW OF CONST. GARRETT STYLES
guilty of first-degree murder in June, there were emotional scenes including his mother bursting out in tears, yelling and screaming in the court. S.K.’s mother was not present at the Newmarket courthouse on Monday as Sosna explained that a first-degree verdict was imposed not because of premeditated thought or malice, but because Styles was a police officer executing his duties at the time of his death. When the Crown and defence made their final submissions earlier this month, Melissa Styles told the court of the pain she and her two small children have faced without him in their lives.
“Garrett was my best friend, my partner in life and the father of my children. He was my first love. He had green eyes and a set of dimples that would melt your heart when he smiled,” said Styles’ widow. “Garrett was a kind and humble man with a dry sense of humour.”
About the sentence Justice Sosna said he took the view that S.K. had paid a heavy price for his actions already.
“It’s been pressed upon him every day since the crash four years ago,” he said, explaining that while the crash “shattered and devastated” the Styles’ family, S.K.’s injuries would remain with him forever more. “By his own folly, he was rendered a quadriplegic. That will continue for the rest of his life.”