The man who killed University of Guelph graduate Grace Glofcheskie last December while fleeing police in a stolen car was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday.
Curtis Leonard Henri, 21, pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death and a variety of lesser charges in the Ontario Court of Justice.
The eight years was on top of just under a year he has spent in custody since his arrest.
Both defence counsel Krys Rutkowski and Crown prosecutor Michael Carnegie recommended the sentence and Justice Michael Epstein concurred.
"For over 40 years I've been involved in the criminal justice system as a lawyer and judge and been involved in a number of very tragic cases. It doesn't get any easier," Epstein said in delivering the sentence.
While acknowledging Henri's "tragic" upbringing from a broken home to years in foster care and the fact that eight years was at the higher end of the scale for the crime in question for someone as young as Henri, the judge felt it was justified.
"Your criminal history speaks for itself," said Epstein, referring to Henri's 37 criminal convictions to date.
The court heard several compelling victim impact statements, including ones from Glofcheskie's parents and three siblings who were in the court Thursday.
They left most of the courtroom in tears, including the court clerk and one of the special constables.
Henri, short and stockily built with a brush cut and wearing khaki pants and a white long-sleeved shirt, sat with his eyes cast down during the proceedings, his heavily-tattooed hands occasionally fidgeting as much as his handcuffs would allow.
He did make a brief statement prior to sentencing.
"I just want to say I'm really deeply sorry for what I've done to the friends and family," Henri said before his words trailed off inaudibly.
Glofcheskie, 24, was on her way home from celebrating a friend's birthday party on Dec. 13 at 2 a.m. when the incident happened.
The Masters grad and former captain of the U of G golf team, who was preparing to move to Florida for a job, was walking northbound on Woolwich Street north of downtown.
She was just a few blocks from her apartment when she was hit by the stolen 2007 Ford Escape driven by Henri and died a few hours later in hospital.
Court heard that Henri was driving his second stolen car of the week when he came upon a police RIDE program on Arthur Street North just east of downtown.
He raced around the RIDE check, almost striking a police officer, then sped up Macdonell Street, narrowly missing other pedestrians, turned right on Woolwich Street and was later estimated to be travelling 128 kilometres per-hour when he lost control of the vehicle where Woolwich turns sharply north in front of the Hakim Optical plaza.
Police were following, but had stopped at traffic lights that Henri drove through and were roughly 500 metres behind the fleeing vehicle at the time.
Carnegie said one witness said Henri "flew by" him. Another said Henri "bombed" down the street.
"There is no way Mr. Henri was ever making that turn," Carnegie said.
The vehicle went out of control, snapped a telephone pole in half, flipped onto its roof and slid 100 metres down the road.
Henri, who was wearing a seatbelt and uninjured, took off on foot before being arrested two days later.
Court heard that Henri was unaware he had hit a person until a friend showed him an online news article with details, at which point he reportedly started to cry.
He was trying to save up enough money to flee to Montreal when arrested.
Several other charges he pleaded guilty to related to the stolen vehicles and breaking his probation.
He has also been banned from driving for 15 years.
