As he sat in the prisoner’s box with tears in his eyes there was no doubt Thursday was a difficult day for Nicholas Shears-Decker.
“But it’s something that he was looking to take on and put behind him today,” said his lawyer, Robby Ash, following his client’s sentencing in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in Corner Brook on Thursday afternoon.
Shears-Decker, 27, was sentenced to two years less a day in jail for refusing to provide a breath sample after his operation of a motor vehicle resulted in an accident that caused that death of 20-year-old David White on Aug. 13, 2016. He also was sentenced to four months, to be served concurrently, for refusing to provide a breath sample after his operation of a motor vehicle resulted in an accident that caused bodily harm to two other passengers on that day.
Shears-Decker and Mr. White were friends and both from Rocky Harbour.
“He’s certainly feeling extremely remorseful,” said Ash.
He said that was shown in Shears-Decker’s own submissions to the court on sentencing, and reiterated by Justice Brian Furey in his remarks, that not a day goes by when he doesn’t think about what happened and the death of his friend.
Ash said the judge had a difficult decision to make.
“These cases are always tragic. Often, they involve people injuring or, in this case, causing the death of a friend.
He said there were a lot of factors the judge had to weigh.
“And the sentence that was imposed today was within the range and was within the range that was proposed by us in this case.
The Crown had sought a sentence of three years and Ash suggested something in the range of 1-2 years, and considered 18 months to be appropriate.
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“It is a fit and just sentence in this case.”
Shears-Decker had originally been charged with three counts of impaired driving, one count of failure to provide a breath sample, one count of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death and two counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm.
He later pled guilty to the two amended charges related to the refusal.
Ash said in discussions with Crown, and review of the file and the evidence supporting all the charges, it was determined that those would be the two that the Crown offered to go with and that his client agreed with.
The two years less a day sentence means Shears-Decker will serve his time within the provincial as opposed to at a federal institution.
The Western Star reached out to Mr. White’s family for a reaction to the sentence. In a Facebook message his sister Kelly White said: “No matter how long Nick serves in jail it doesn’t bring my brother back.”
Twitter: WS_DianeCrocker
