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The fates of two motorists who fatally pedestrians on Windsor streets in separate collisions and then drove off, leaving broken bodies in roadways and two families devastated, are in the hands of a Windsor judge.
Next month, Ontario Court Justice Sharon Murphy will hand down sentences to Richard Rocheleau, 68, and Ahmed Mousa, 23, both of whom pleaded guilty last week to the same count of failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing death.
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During sentencing proceedings in the same courtroom, Murphy heard from the loved ones of Penny Quinlan, 51, who died on impact after being struck by Rocheleau in January 2023, and Kyle Verbrugge, 33, who died in hospital two days after being struck by Mousa near Lanspeary Park in November 2022.
“A great part of my life has been stolen. The emotional and mental wound is vast,” Kyle’s father Marcus Verbrugge said in an emotional victim impact statement he read Thursday.
“I still struggle to put into words the bottomless grief that has been unjustly foisted upon me and my family by the deliberate action of a cowardly stranger.”
Verbrugge’s strong voice waivered as he described holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries without his only son. He was one of seven people to read such statements and among roughly a dozen of Kyle’s loved ones present in court.
On Nov. 18, 2022, Mousa was behind the wheel of a Dodge Caravan when he struck Verbrugge near the intersection of Elsmere Avenue and Ellis Street East. Police and paramedics found Verbrugge by the side of the road in critical condition.
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Verbrugge died two days later, his family telling the court nearly every bone in his body was broken, his brain irreparably swollen.
Windsor police had issued a public plea for help finding the involved driver. Mousa turned himself in four days after the collision.
In court on Thursday, Mousa sat with his head down while Verbrugge’s family wept and described their loss.
Fear and panic overwhelmed him
Shane Miles, Mousa’s lawyer, told the court his client, who had fled war-torn Syria with his family, panicked that day after hitting Verbrugge, fearful his family would face retribution, including death, for his actions. Miles said that’s something that may have happened in Iraq, where his family sought refuge before arriving in Canada.
“This fear and panic overwhelmed him,” Miles said.
The defence asked for an 18-month conditional sentence of house arrest and a driving prohibition of two to three years. The Crown is seeking a two-year custodial sentence and a five-year driving prohibition.
Assistant Crown attorney Kyrstin Krainz said Mousa’s attempts to conceal his damaged vehicle and his initial refusal to come forward “shows not only a momentary panic and disregard for the life of Mr. Verbrugge at the moment the accident happened, but a callous disregard for his life for four days.”
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Mousa read a letter of apology to Verbrugge’s family and said he was “deeply remorseful” for his actions.
“The nerves just got to me and I fled the scene. Sorry, sorry, sorry,” he said, turning away from Justice Murphy and towards Verbrugge’s family members in the gallery behind him.
Earlier in the day, the same judge heard of the Jan. 3, 2023, death of Penny Quinlan. She was struck by Robert Rocheleau’s 2000 Ford Windstar minivan on Tecumseh Road East near Cadillac Street on a dark, wet, and foggy evening.
Rocheleau, who was 66 at the time, was driving to a home improvement store at around 6 p.m. when Quinlan stepped into the street with her hood up and head down, the court heard. Moments prior, she was blocked from view by an idling city bus.
Rocheleau’s minivan struck Quinlan and launched her 10 to 15 feet in the air, the court heard. Rocheleau pulled over and idled for a few moments but did not get out of his vehicle. The nearby bus driver, who witnessed the collision, rushed to help Quinlan and found her vital signs absent.
Rocheleau sped off, then pulled into a parking lot and was seen tossing two partially empty beer cans from his van. From there, he went home, where defence lawyer Dan Scott said he waited for police to arrive, though he did not contact law enforcement.
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Using nearby surveillance footage, police were able to use the minivan’s licence plate number to track Rocheleau down that night. Although a responding officer’s notes indicate Rocheleau displayed some signs of impairment, police did not perform a breathalyzer test as hours had passed since the collision.
Scott told the court his client had not been drinking that day. Rocheleau walks with a limp from a hip injury and sometimes has a “scattered” speech pattern as a result of a previous stroke and heart attack, Scott said.
“I am confident that had Mr. Rocheleau simply stayed (at the scene of the collision), there would have been no charges laid,” Scott said.
“For a person that’s never been in that situation, it was like a ‘What happened?’ moment that was followed by panic.
“Mr. Rocheleau did not attempt to obstruct justice by having his car repaired.”
The Crown is seeking an 18-month jail sentence and a five-year driving prohibition for Rocheleau. The defence is seeking a conditional sentence to be served in the community.
Breaks my heart that I will never see my mom again
Krainz argued Rocheleau did not experience a lapse in judgment and that he had enough of his wits about him to discard beer cans and drive home.
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“It breaks my heart that I will never get to see my mom again, or that she will never get to see her grandchildren grow up, or all of the milestones that she will miss,” son Jason Quinlan said in a victim impact statement read out by Krainz.
“Not a day has gone by that I don’t think of her and wish I could see her one last time.”
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Given the opportunity by the judge to speak, Rocheleau apologized to Quinlan’s family and said he did not see her before the moment of impact.
“I replay this in my mind every day. It will not leave me,” Rocheleau said. “I stopped, I saw there were people around Penny, and I drove off.
“I should have stopped. I panicked — I hope the family can someday forgive me.”
Mousa and Rocheleau will each be sentenced in July.
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