A woman charged in connection with a crash that killed a young couple in Pitt Meadows last year will be tried by judge and jury.
Andelina Kristina Hecimovic, who faces two counts of dangerous driving causing death, has picked a trial in provincial court, for now.
The trial is expected to last four days, but no date has been set.
Rebecca ‘Beckie’ Dyer, 19, and her boyfriend, Johnny De Oliveira, 21, were killed around midnight Oct. 19 when a Toyota Paseo, driven by Hecimovic and heading east on Lougheed Highway, skidded sideways over a concrete median near Harris Road.
The Toyota flipped over and slammed into the roof of the Suzuki Swift that Dyer and De Oliveira were travelling in.
Dyer and a friend had just been picked up by her boyfriend from a sold-out Justin Bieber concert in Vancouver.
They were returning home to Pitt Meadows after dropping off Dyer’s friend in Maple Ridge.
They were only two blocks away from the apartment they shared with Dyer’s mom, Debbie.
Investigators allege Hecimovic, then 23, was driving aggressively when she crashed.
Flanked by family and friends who filled two rows of seats in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court on Wednesday, Debbie Dyer and Audrey De Oliveira wore T-shirts printed with photographs of their children.
Dyer was dressed in purple, her daughter’s favourite colour, and De Oliveira wore lime-green, the eye-popping hue of her son’s beloved 4X4.
The families wanted to be in court, even for the short arraignment hearing, for Beckie and Johnny.
“We want to see it from start to finish,’ said Dyer, who was hoping to catch a glimpse of the accused in court. Hecimovic’s lawyer, Dimitri Kontou, appeared on her behalf.
“We want to show that our kids matter. Somebody has to stand up for Becky and Johnny and they are not there to stand up,” Dyer added.
The court appearance took place the same day the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure began digging up the section of Lougheed Highway where the couple was killed to install concrete barriers.
The three-foot-tall concrete divider will separate east-and west-bound lanes of the highway.