Carla Abogado's mother wept as she told the court how her family has struggled since her 18-year-old daughter was struck and killed by an unmarked police vehicle driven by an officer at almost double the speed limit.
"Our whole world fell apart," Sonia Abogado said, reading from a victim impact statement Thursday during the sentencing hearing for Det.Const. Remo Romano of York Regional Police.
She told the court how she and her husband struggled financially since Nastasha "Carla" Abogado was fatally struck in February 2014, because they couldn't work and needed medications to deal with their grief.
"Life will not be the same without our daughter Carla," she said.
A jury found Romano guilty of dangerous driving causing death earlier this year.
Abogado was jaywalking across St Clair Avenue East, after getting off a bus. Romano was driving 115 km/hr in an unmarked police pickup truck, well above the 60 km/hr speed limit.
This case is unusual, having gone to trial three times. The first resulted in a mistrial after the jury was deadlocked, then a second trial found Romano not guilty.
The crown appealed that verdict, arguing the judge improperly instructed the jury. In January 2018, a third jury found Romano guilty. Ontario Superior Court judge Brian O'Marra is set to hand down his sentence on Sept. 13.
In court on Thursday, Crown lawyer Mabel Lai argued Romano should spend one year in jail, while his defence lawyer argued for time served in the community and probation.
'Sympathetic, not remorseful'
Lai described Romano as "sympathetic, not remorseful."
She said while the officer asked the Abogado family for forgiveness, "he testified there was absolutely nothing wrong with his driving… He would have felt safe at 120 km/hr."
While Lai acknowledged police officers have the power to ignore speed limits while on the job, "he took it too far," as the police surveillance team Romano was trying to catch up to at the time wasn't in any danger or on an urgent case.
William McKenzie, Romano's lawyer, told the judge his client does feel remorse, adding that when Romano spoke to the Abogado family at a previous court appearance, he gave them his deceased father's rosary.
McKenzie also said Romano has tried to ensure the court process proceeds as quickly as possible, saying "he's done everything but plead guilty."
Officer suffers from PTSD since the fatal incident
McKenzie told the court that Romano, who is on administrative duty for York Regional Police, suffers from PTSD and believes his father's death last year was connected to stress caused by this case.
Later in court, Romano spoke, in tears, saying he thinks about this tragic incident every day.
"I think, 'Why me?' I'm a good honest man," Romano said in court. "Never in a million years did I think that I would hurt or bring harm to someone else."
He turned to the Abogado family and said, "from the bottom of my heart, please know how sorry I am."
In Sonia Abogado's victim impact statement, she told the court her family feels a responsibility to the community as the judge considers his sentence.
"How can we prevent this kind of tragic incident from happening to another family?" she asked, "so that it will serve as a lesson or preventative measure."