90 days in jail not enough for fatal crash: victim’s mom
Almost seven years of watching her daughter’s case make its way through the court system has ended in disappointment for Debbie Dyer.
On Tuesday morning, Dyer was in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster when a judge sentenced Andelina Kristina Hecimovic to 90 days in jail for causing the crash that killed 19-year-old Beckie Dyer and 21-year-old Johnny deOliveira.
“It’s not enough, obviously,”
Dyer said.
“I was hoping for significantly more.”
Hecimovic was convicted in January of two counts of dangerous driving causing death, after being acquitted of the same charges at an earlier trial.
Hecimovic’s jail sentence will be served intermittently, meaning she’ll spend a couple of days each week in jail. Her sentence also includes two years of probation, 120 hours of community service and a three-year driving prohibition.
“It’s bad. It’s bad for the people that have to come after us,” said Dyer. “I want people to be aware that this is the consequence, and if there’s no consequence then what’s the point of even sentencing someone to 90 days intermittent? How is this a deterrent? It’s not, in my view.”
Shortly before midnight on Oct. 19, 2010, deOliveira was driving on Lougheed Highway with Dyer in the passenger seat when Hecimovic’s Toyota Paseo jumped the concrete median, flipped and smashed into the roof of deOliveira’s vehicle. The couple were killed on impact, according to police.
Hecimovic, a former nurse, testified at both trials that she had been driving to her boyfriend’s home after a difficult shift at Eagle Ridge Hospital when the crash happened.
She said she had moved into the right lane because she thought it was an open lane — she did not notice that it was a right-turn-only lane or that she was entering an intersection on a red light because she was upset about work.
In 2013, the first trial judge concluded that the Crown had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Hecimovic had the intent to drive dangerously, and decided that Hecimovic’s driving was not a marked departure from the standard of care a reasonable person would have observed.
The Crown appealed the decision, alleging that the trial judge made a legal error. The appeal was heard in October 2014 and two months later, in a 2-1 decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal set aside the acquittal and ordered a new trial.
Because one judge dissented on a point of law, Hecimovic had the right to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which she did. In November 2015, the court dismissed the appeal after a hearing. The second trial took place a year later. After all these years, Dyer is glad she won’t have to spend any more time in court. Now, she said, she’ll focus on making sure Beckie and Johnny aren’t forgotten.
“She was such a giving person, and she never expected anything in return and Johnny was the same. They were made of the same cloth and that’s why they loved each other,” she said through tears. “I’ll keep their memories alive by volunteering and donating.”