The case involving Andelina Kristina Hecimovic, acquitted in 2013 of dangerous driving causing the deaths of two Pitt Meadows teens, is going to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In December, the B.C. Appeal Court ordered a new trial after the Crown appealed Hecimovic’s acquittal. She was charged after an Oct. 19, 2010 collision on Lougheed Highway at Harris Road, that claimed the lives of Rebecca ‘Beckie’ Dyer, 19, and her boyfriend, Johnny De Oliveira, 21.
But because one of three Appeal Court judges dissented, there was an option to take the issue to the Supreme Court. The justices in the top court in the country then will either uphold the original acquittal – or order that a new trial take place.
“I’m not surprised,” Becky’s mom, Debbie Dyer, said Monday.
“I’m disappointed that she’s chosen to do this.”
Dyer said the case could start in Ottawa in June, when an appeal date is set, and that both sides have to pick dates that work for their schedules. During the appeal, both sides have an hour to make their case in front of the Supreme Court.
A decision follows in about three months. Dyer said that the summer months aren’t counted, so it should be next fall when a ruling is made. Dyer said the question the Supreme Court will address is whether the judge applied the correct legal principals regarding the fault component?
During the accident, a Toyota driven by Hecimovic skidded sideways over a concrete median, flipped and landed on top of the couple’s Suzuki Swift. Hecimovic was driving in the right-turn-only lane when she crossed the intersection of Harris Road and Lougheed Highway on a red light. An expert estimated she hit the concrete median at a speed of between 100 or 110 km/h.
In the initial trial in September 2013, Justice Miriam Gropper ruled that Hecimovic was not trying to beat the red light. Hecimovic told the court she was thinking about her shift and suddenly smelled something odd as she approached the intersection. When she looked at her scrubs she noticed vomit on her shirt and burst into tears. She was trying to wipe the tears off her face and focus on the road when she realized she had run a red light.
Gropper found that Hecimovic’s behaviour was not a “marked departure from the norm” because many people speed along that stretch of Lougheed Highway.