Rich Canadian who killed three children and grandfather in drunken crash is jailed for 10 years
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 30 March, 2016, 9:52am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 March, 2016, 9:52am
Associated Press
A judge has sentenced a member of one of Canada’s wealthiest families to 10 years in prison for killing three young children and their grandfather while driving drunk.
Marco Muzzo, 29, pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm. Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst handed down the sentence Tuesday and also prohibited Muzzo from driving for 12 years. The children’s mother sobbed quietly in the courtroom.
Nine-year-old Daniel Neville-Lake, his five-year-old brother Harrison, their two-year-old sister Milly and the children’s 65-year-old grandfather, Gary Neville, died last September after the van they were in was hit by a speeding Muzzo, who was driving an SUV. Police said Muzzo was so drunk he urinated on himself after the collision.
Breathalyzer tests showed he had between two and three times the legal amount of alcohol in his blood.
Muzzo had just returned to Toronto on a private jet after attending a bachelor party, when he got in his car while still drunk.
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 10 to 12 years behind bars and a ban on driving for eight to 10. The defence had argued an eight-year sentence would be enough.
Fuerst said no matter the length of sentence, Muzzo will eventually be released and go back to normal life, but the victims’ family won’t.
“The sentence is 10 years and none of my children saw 10 years,” Jennifer Neville-Lake said of the sentence. “When you choose to drink and drive you are killing someone’s babies. All of mine were killed on a Sunday afternoon.”
In her impact statement last month, Neville-Lake, whose family was decimated in the crash, said Muzzo’s actions have shattered her world.
“I would not wish this horror I am living on anyone but you,” she said. “You deserve to know exactly what it feels like to have every single child you created meet someone like you.”
In Canadian Business Magazine’s ranking of the top 100 wealthiest Canadians, the Muzzo estate ranks 52nd, worth more than US$1.7-billion. The family is in the construction business.
