A woman charged in a fatal rollover in Cochin Nov. 1, 2014 was sentenced Tuesday in provincial court.
Charnelle Swiftwolfe was sentenced after guilty pleas to a charge of impaired operation of a motor vehicle and to several breach charges over a period of months.
She received a global sentence of nine months jail for the .08 charge followed by a year’s probation. For the breaches, she received four months.
Swiftwolfe, who has been in and out of jail since the incident, has been credited six months for time served in remand. That means her jail time has another three months left to run.
She must abide by a number of conditions for her 12-month probation, which includes an abstention from alcohol clause for the first six months and then a treatment clause for the remaining six. Swiftwolfe also received an 18-month driving prohibition.
Swiftwolfe had originally faced a charge of impaired driving causing death, but plead guilty to the lesser impaired operation charge.
The incident took place in Cochin sometime after 4 p.m. in the afternoon. It was a single vehicle accident during which the vehicle Swiftwolfe was driving rolled and was submerged in Lehman Creek.
According to facts presented in court, the accused drove the motor vehicle, lost control and went off the road into the water.
Two adult passengers in the vehicle — Swiftwolfe’s father and cousin — died in the incident. Swiftwolfe was arrested and later recorded breathalyzer readings of .210 and .200.
According to counsel, the accused had claimed there was an intervening act, that her father had reached across and grabbed the steering wheel.
Prosecutor Glen Jacques said in court the Crown was unable to verify that information. Regardless, it still left her occupying the vehicle in an intoxicated state.
Alcoholism was cited as a factor in her case, and Jacques called for a sentence that would “attempt to assist with the alcohol issues.”
The loss of two lives in the incident was described as an “aggravating circumstance” in sentencing.
The sentence generally followed what the Crown had proposed. The defence submission had called for time served and a fine of between $1,500-$2,000, plus a probation period of nine to 12 months.
