The driver of a stolen truck involved in a fatal collision on Highway 16 that killed three Edmonton women has been sentenced to 10 years in a federal penitentiary.
Brandon Stucka, 27, was sentenced at Queen’s Bench court in Battleford Friday. Sentencing took place for nine counts to which Stucka had pled guilty in late May.
The charges were in connection to events that took place on Sept. 22 last year. The most serious charges were three counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, stemming from the collision on Highway 16 in which three women were killed and one more was seriously injured. For those four counts, Justice Gerald Allbright imposed a sentence of eight years concurrent for each one.
Stucka was also sentenced to a one-year consecutive jail sentence for evading a police officer while operating a motor vehicle. He also received an additional one-year consecutive jail sentence for failing to stay at the scene of an accident and failure to offer assistance to a person involved in an accident.
On counts of breaking and entering, and possessing a stolen vehicle, Stucka received one-year concurrent sentences each. Stucka also received three months incarceration, concurrent, for breach of curfew.
Stucka was credited for 432 days remand time, or 14 months, calculated at 1.5 to one. That means Stucka still has another eight years and 10 months left to serve in a federal penitentiary.
Justice Allbright also imposed a driving prohibition of 10 years. This is less than what the Crown had called for, but Justice Allbright was reluctant to impose a harsher prohibition, noting that at some point Stucka would return to society.
A DNA order was also imposed.
In imposing sentence Justice Allbright denounced the actions of Stucka behind the wheel.
“In this instance the vehicle became a lethal weapon,” said Justice Allbright.
“That is something that has a high degree of moral culpability associated with it.”
Allbright also denounced the decisions Stucka made leading up to the collision.
“Every step of the way, your decision was the wrong decision,” said Allbright.
The Crown and defence each made separate submissions on sentencing. Crown prosecutor Mitch Piche had called for a 12-year global sentence on the criminal negligence and other counts, and had called for imposition of a 20-year driving prohibition.
Stucka’s lawyer Andrew Lyster called for a prison sentence of six to seven years, and a shorter length to the driving prohibition. While briefer than what the Crown proposed, Lyster submitted this was within the range.
According to the facts outlined in court by Piche, Stucka and accomplices had broken into businesses in the RM of Wilton sometime before 3 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2017, and four vehicles were stolen, including a white Dodge Ram one-ton truck with a digger on it, driven by Stucka.
A high-speed chase then ensued in which Stucka was pursued by the RCMP, but that chase was eventually called off for public safety reasons.
The victims’ vehicle, a Dodge Caravan, was driving eastbound east of Lloydminster, travelling from Edmonton.
According to the facts submitted, Stucka crossed the westbound lanes on Highway 16 where he should have turned north, and turned against traffic to the eastbound lane, travelling westbound for 3.6 kilometres. The vehicle then collided with the Dodge Caravan head-on.
Three women in the Dodge Caravan died: the driver Jeannette Wright, Eva Tumbay and Glorious David, all of Edmonton.
A fourth occupant, Janet Gaye, suffered major injuries.
The victims were members of Edmonton’s Liberian community and had been en route to Minnesota.
According to the facts, the combined impact speed of the collision was 137 km/h. The time of the collision was 3:05 a.m. on Sept. 22.
Stucka did not remain at the scene, but ran off in a southerly direction. He was found in a pump shack nearby. Stucka did not have a valid driver’s licence. He did have a learner’s licence from British Columbia.
Piche described Stucka’s driving in the wrong lane as “extremely, grossly negligent and verging on intentional.” Photos from the crash scene showing the devastation to the minivan were entered.
According to Piche, the offences were described at the “high end” of the sentencing scale. Aggravating factors included Stucka in the active process of stealing from a business, leaving the scene at a high rate of speed in evading police, a protracted period of “very offensive” driving and driving on the wrong side of the road.
Mitigating was the fact there were guilty pleas entered, saving the court the time and expense of a trial, which Piche said would have been long and complex.
Piche went extensively into the sentencing case law and pointed to the consequences: that three people were killed.
Victims Speak
The victim impact statements were then entered in court. One came from Janet Gaye, the sole survivor from the minivan.
Another written statement came from the husband of the late Eva Tumbay, which stated she had fled from Liberia’s civil war.
“That heart-rending day ... changed my life forever,” he wrote.
The churches attended by the victims also filed statements. The most emotion from the gallery was shown during the victim impact statement of the minister from the Solid Rock International Ministries in Edmonton, Thomas Wilson, in which David, Wright and Gaye were members of the congregation.
“The life of the church hasn’t been the same since the passing of our sisters,” said Wilson.
Thomas Bumbeh, representing the Edmonton Liberian community, read a victim impact statement on behalf of his organization. He spoke at length of the impact of the loss of these three individuals on the organization, emotionally and financially.
“We’ve lost three prominent members of the association. It’s a great loss,” Bumbeh told the court. “We hope no community would ever have to experience this.”
The husband of Glorious David, Pastor Glory Blamo, also spoke.
“I choose to speak because I wanted to look at you and tell you, you left a vacuum in our family,” said Blamo, who then looked directly at the accused.
“The main reason I wanted to speak to you is to say I forgive you.”
Following the reading of victim impact statements, defence lawyer Lyster outlined more details about Stucka’s background.
He noted that Stucka has had a troubled life, having been sexually abused as a child and having serious problems with drug use, including cocaine and meth. Lyster also said Stucka was diagnosed as schizophrenic at age 16.
Letters of support were filed in court for Stucka as well.
Mitigating factors Lyster pointed to included an early guilty plea and no preliminary inquiry and no trial. Lyster also said Stucka was “very remorseful for his actions,” noting he was crying during reading of the victim impact statements.
“He feels horrible about what he’s done and how he’s affected the lives of these four families,” said Lyster.
“He will have to live with it for the rest of his life.”
Lyster also spoke extensively on the case law. One notable case he cited was the locally notorious Norma Jean Mooswa case in which the accused received 10 years in the deaths of six people in Cochin on July 1, 2004.
Lyster said he understood the reasons the Crown was seeking a sentence of 12 years, but emphasized six to seven years was within the range.
In recognition of the large contingent of family members and family supporters who had travelled to Battleford for the sentencing, Justice Allbright said he would impose sentence that day, so there could be closure of the judicial process.
Stucka Expresses Remorse
He then asked Stucka if he wished to speak before he imposed sentence. At that point Stucka turned towards the victims' family members in the gallery and read a written statement.
Stucka said he was “so sorry for the inexcusable acts that have occurred” and apologized for all the hurt he had caused.
“I’m sorry,” Stucka said.
Afterwards, Justice Allbright turned to Stucka and asked him if he understood the “manifestation of grace” and forgiveness that had been shown to him. Stucka said he understood.
After Allbright imposed the 10-year sentence on Stucka, prosecutor Piche told reporters he believed the justice system had worked.
“Individual members of the community came forward to speak and directed their words to the accused. Many of these had suffered deaths personally of other family members. And they forgave him, and I found that very moving. And of course the judge asked Mr. Stucka to recognize the grace that had been shown to him by these people,” said Piche.
“To me this is an example — and I know our justice system comes under a lot of fire — of the justice system actually working. I think Mr. Stucka himself recognizes something good has happened to him here even though he’s going to jail for 10 years, and the people are healing and some of them have told me that, that they felt the process itself was something that healed. So I think the system worked today.”
Pastor Blamo expressed his respect for the sentencing decision of the court.
“Thank God that justice was served,” said Blamo.
“Maybe it might not be what I desire, but at least we went through the due process, and I feel relief.”
