CORNER BROOK, N.L. — It was a Christmas party.
It was stormy.
Someone had been in an altercation and needed a ride home.
It was a distance of less than two kilometres.
What could go wrong?
For Walter Alfred Joyce, the decision to be of some help has torn not just his world apart, but the lives of everyone who loved and knew Marilyn and Merle Sheppard.
Somewhere between the party and their home, the Sheppards were walking through a snowstorm. Merle had had some sort of minor altercation with someone at the party and he, his wife and their son, Michael, had decided to walk home.
On the way, Michael decided to go back to the party to confront the person his father had just clashed with.
Joyce and his wife were asked to take Michael home. They agreed to do so.
On the way, the truck being driven by Joyce struck the Sheppards and both of them were pronounced dead from their injuries shortly afterwards.
Joyce had been drinking socially. He was barely above the legal limit to have been charged with impaired driving.
The two subsequent readings of his blood-alcohol levels, which were taken around three and a half hours after the accident, were 100 and 90 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
“This happens to normal, everyday people who
just make a bad choice.
So, you cannot make that bad choice.”
On Thursday, Joyce was sentenced to serve a total of two years, less one day, for two counts of impaired driving causing death. Justice Brian Furey handed him that sentence for each of the two deaths, but the time will be served concurrently.
There were a number of factors contributing to the accident, including stormy weather and icy roads, but Furey said slowed reaction time caused by the impairment from alcohol had to be considered first and foremost.
“He might have been trying to defuse a situation involving Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard’s son, it might have been a stormy morning, but, in my view, the most significant factor is Mr. Joyce drove a motor vehicle, striking and killing his sister-in-law and her husband,” said Furey.
Crown attorney Adam Sparkes had asked for Joyce to be given a total of three years in prison. He said sentences for this offence tend to be lower in Newfoundland and Labrador for some reason.
He hopes to see them trend upwards because tragic consequences like what happened in Lark Harbour that Christmas night are avoidable.
“I think the message has to go out to the general public that this doesn’t happen to people that are blind drunk,” said Sparkes after Joyce’s sentencing. “This happens to normal, everyday people who just make a bad choice. So, you cannot make that bad choice.”
The court was told Joyce is an otherwise upstanding citizen who does not have a problem with alcohol. He is a family man and a respected employee at his workplace in Alberta, where he has lived since leaving Lark Harbour in 1997.
He has no previous criminal record, with just a couple of speeding tickets blemishing his driving record.
He was co-operative with police and with the preparation of a pre-sentence report done for the court to consider his personal circumstances before sentencing him.
He is considered a low risk to re-offend.
Most importantly, noted Furey, Joyce has taken full responsibility for making the bad decision that has torn his family apart and left his small hometown devastated.
Beyond the time in prison, plus the three years of probation and two years being prohibited from driving Furey also imposed, the judge said Joyce will have to live with the loss of the Sheppards and the impact that has had on his life and the community of Lark Harbour for the rest of his life.
No one realizes that lifelong nuance of his sentence more than Joyce himself.
When he had the chance to address the court during his sentencing hearing last month, Joyce said he wished there was something he could do to change what happened and realized the immense and unforgiving impact his decision to drive drunk has had on everyone involved.
He told Furey that he misses the Sheppards a lot and thinks of them every day and night.
He said Lark Harbour is not the same and he cannot go visit there anymore.
Defence lawyer Robby Ash, who had asked for 18 months in prison, said this was indeed a family and community tragedy. That was evident by the 50 or so people associated with Joyce and the Sheppards who packed into the Supreme Court to witness Thursday’s sentencing.
Ash felt Furey had been fair to his client, without being particularly lenient because of the sad circumstances.
While the ramifications of what happened will never go away, Ash hopes the sentencing will help everyone as they deal with their pain and loss in their own way.
“This has been a long road to get here,” said Ash. “This will bring some closure to my client and his family and hopefully they can now start the healing process and move forward.”
