DURHAM -- A youth who was 14 when the car he was driving left a roadway in rural Ajax, killing two young friends, has pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal negligence causing death.
The boy, now 15, entered the pleas in youth court in Oshawa Tuesday. He is to be sentenced in May.
The youngster was at the wheel of a Mazda MX6 that witnesses saw speeding southbound on Audley Road on the morning of Nov. 18, 2007, court heard. Witnesses said the car was travelling at a high rate of speed in the 60 km-h zone when it passed a vehicle, then fishtailed and left the roadway.
The car crashed through a fence and rolled in a field before coming to a rest. Two boys who had been riding in the car, both 15, were pronounced dead at the scene; the driver sustained injuries that included a broken collarbone and fractured ribs.
“The rate of speed at minimum was 128 km-h,” Crown counsel Telena Mulligan said in reading from an agreed statement of facts.
Defence lawyer Alan Richter said his client agreed with the majority of the facts, but argued it couldn’t be proven the car was travelling at 128 km-h when it passed the other vehicle.
An accident reconstruction has proven only that the car was going that fast when it left the roadway, he said.
The boy, who came to court with his father, said little during the appearance, only responding when a clerk asked for his plea to the charges.
“I plead guilty,” he said softly, his eyes downcast.
Ontario Court Justice Mary Teresa Devlin accepted the boy’s plea and ordered a pre-sentence report. A formal sentencing hearing will be held in May.