Crown wants ‘chair girl’ jailed
Woman pleads guilty to mischief endangering life for February balcony toss
A 19-year-old woman is facing up to six months in jail after admitting in court Friday that she hurled a patio chair from the 45th-floor balcony of a downtown Toronto condo tower in February.
Marcella Zoia pleaded guilty to one count of mischief endangering life for the Feb. 9 incident that was filmed and widely distributed in a viral video, sparking public outrage. Crown attorney Heather Keating told Ontario Court Justice Mara Greene the prosecution will be seeking a six-month jail sentence for the offence, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 14.
Zoia’s lawyer, Greg Leslie, said outside the Old City Hall courthouse that a non-custodial sentence with probation is a more appropriate punishment, given his client’s age and prospects for rehabilitation.
“When you deal with somebody so young, in my opinion … the brain’s not fully developed, she’s was still a young lady at that time. She made a mistake, I think jail is far excessive and we’ll be asking for a suspended sentence.”
As he has always maintained, Leslie said “peer pressure” from others with Zoia that morning prompted her reckless action.
Dressed in head-to-toe black, Zoia bolted from the courthouse into a waiting SUV without speaking to reporters following the hearing. Leslie said she is suffering from a “lot of anxiety” knowing she could be going to jail.
In court, Keating read a relatively short synopsis of what happened last winter and played the infamous 10-second video recorded that Saturday around 10 a.m. Zoia responded “yes” when the judge asked her if she was the person on the balcony seen smiling and launching the chair over the railing.
The video captured it falling to the ground toward the nearby Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard, but not landing, Keating said reading from the synopsis. Although no one was injured, building surveillance cameras picked up several people entering and exiting the building around that time, including a woman pushing a child in a stroller, Keating told court.
Zoia, in the company of three friends and her mother, was much more subdued in and outside the courtroom Friday compared to her last in-person appearance last February, where she seemed to enjoy the media attention.
Leslie said she is a “changed woman” since then, keenly aware that she now has a criminal record that could prevent her from working as a model in the United States. She is currently unemployed, he said.
“She’s learned, she’s matured … she understands the severity and the consequences of what she’s done.”