Drunk and in the wrong direction on the highway: 9 years demanded against a driver who killed a man in a head-on collision

Drunk and going the wrong way on the highway when he killed a motorist, Falanka-Yves Kiona did not cause an accident due to an error of judgment, he committed a serious crime, insists the public prosecutor, who is demanding a sentence of nine years for the driver.

• Also read: Fatal collision at 100 km/h in Quebec: a driver guilty of killing another motorist while driving in the opposite direction

Kiona no longer remembers how he got onto the Laurentian highway in the opposite direction on February 19, 2023. He also does not remember the amount of alcohol he had consumed before leaving an evening with friends behind the wheel of his car.

But the consequences of what he called “bad judgment” on Wednesday will follow him for the rest of his life.

That evening, the 54-year-old man from Congo crashed head-on into the car driven by Dominic Gauthier. The latter had no chance.

Almost double

It was established that Kiona had almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood when he drove off.

“I deeply resent this man who destroyed our lives. […] It is a very serious lack of judgment on the part of the latter, but also of his friends who let him leave,” wrote the deceased’s spouse, Mélissa Roy, in a touching letter read by the Crown prosecutor. ,M^e Valérie Bélizaire-Joseph.

The victim’s parents also filed a statement in court, recounting how they almost lost their son Dominic in a serious road accident when he was 17 years old. The collision of February 2023 was for us a stroke of fate which had the effect of “a sword blow to the heart”.

“Our life will never be the same again,” write France Lemay and Marcel Gauthier.

“I feel like a monster”

The accused also took the stand during submissions on the sentence to be imposed on him. Declaring that he did not have a drinking problem and ensuring that he did not drink more than “2 or 3 cans of beer” per three weeks, he nevertheless arrived at his friends’ house on the evening of the tragedy with two bottles of strong alcohol.

And unable to remember how much alcohol he drank, he recalls he was “too intoxicated” after the impact to explain what happened.

“I’m sorry, it wasn’t intentional, it was an accident. Forgive me,” he begged the family. “I feel like I’m a monster, but I’m not a monster.”

The public prosecutor proposed to the judge the imposition of a 9-year sentence for the driver, in addition to a 10-year driving ban. M^e Bélizaire-Joseph raised the fact that the pre-sentence report explains that the accused was “running away from his problems”, particularly with his relationship, by meeting with friends to consume alcohol.

«[Le groupe] prioritized the use of alcohol rather than confidences,” writes the probation officer in her report, with the public prosecutor describing these behaviors as “problematic and dangerous.”

In defense, M^e Amélie Levasseur believes that a four-year sentence would be fair for her client. The lawyer argued that the case law examples advocating for sentences like that proposed by the crown concern more serious cases, citing as an example that of Yves Martin, sentenced to 11 years for having killed three people from the same family in 2015 .

The collision caused on February 19, 2023 by Falanka-Yves Kiona and which cost the life of Dominic Gauthier was the second to occur in a weekend in Quebec which involved a drunk driver who took the highway in the opposite direction. On February 17, Salvardor Ramirez-Nolasco mowed down the van driven by Mario Fleury, causing his death. The driver received a sentence of seven and a half years.