[ad_1]
GRAVENHURST, Ont. – A parole hearing is scheduled today for a drunk driver who killed three young children and their grandfather in an accident north of Toronto three years ago.
Marco Muzzo was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to four counts of impaired driving causing death and two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm.
The September 2015 crash killed nine-year-old Daniel Neville-Lake, his five-year-old brother Harrison, their sister Milly, and his 65-year-old grandfather, Gary Neville.
The children's grandmother and great-grandmother were also seriously injured in the crash in Vaughan, Ontario.
Muzzo will be eligible for day parole on Friday, on full parole next May and on release June 18, 2022. He will also be sentenced to a 12-year driving ban after his release.
The crash triggered a wave of public grief that led to several candlelight vigils to honor the victims. It also sparked a debate on criminal penalties for drunk driving, with some lobbies calling for tougher penalties.
The court heard that Muzzo had returned from his boy's stag party in Florida on a private plane and had picked up his car at Pearson International Airport before the accident.
EXTENDED: Former Parole Board Member of Canada Explains Hearing Process
He was driven by a stop sign and told the court that the van carrying the Neville-Lake family was boned.
A police officer called on the scene said that Muzzo had bright eyes, smelled of alcohol and urinated against himself, according to an agreed statement of fact read in court.
The court heard two breathalyzers showed that Muzzo had 192 and 204 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. The legal limit is 80.
Only after arriving at the police station did Muzzo learn that the four people had died, the court said.
In sentencing, the presiding judge ruled that Muzzo's long history of driving offenses before the murder incident suggested that he had an "irresponsible attitude towards privilege to drive.
And while Muzzo has shown genuine remorse for his actions, he must be held responsible for the irreversible suffering he has caused, the judge said.
When he appeared at the bar, Muzzo told the court that he would be haunted forever by the grief and pain that he caused to the Neville-Lake family.
The children's mother, Jennifer Neville-Lake, told the court that Muzzo's actions had turned her world upside down.
The Muzzo family, one of the richest in Canada, owns the Marel Contractors Drywall Company.
[ad_2]
Source link
