MONTREAL — The driver who struck and killed a seven-year-old Ukrainian refugee girl in Montreal in 2022 has been sentenced to 12 months of house arrest.
Juan Manuel Becerra Garcia apologized once again to the girl’s family on Wednesday after her conviction. He pleaded guilty on May 9 to a charge of fatal hit-and-run.
Mariia Legenkovska was walking to school with her brother and sister on December 13, 2022, in the Center-Sud neighborhood when the Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV driven by Mr. Becerra Garcia hit her.
The driver left the scene without stopping, but turned himself in to police later that day.
The defense and prosecution jointly proposed a sentence of 12 months in detention, agreeing that Mr. Becerra Garcia had not driven dangerously and had not seen the girl because of the blinding sun.
Defense lawyer Eric Coulombe said Wednesday that although his client did not realize he had hit the girl, he admitted he was guilty of “willful blindness” for failing to being arrested after suspecting his SUV may have hit something.
The prosecutor in the case, Sylvie Dulude, told journalists on Wednesday that the girl’s mother especially wanted to hear the accused recognize his wrongs.
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