Carol Berner sentenced
Posted November 12, 2010 2:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS1130) – Carol Berner has been sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in federal prison for impaired driving causing the death of four-year-old Alexa Middelaer, but her lawyer says they plan to appeal.
In a relatively short sentence reading, the judge said Berner was not heavily intoxicated, but they had to send a message out that deterrence and a probation period, which the defence was suggesting, would not be good enough. The girl’s parents, Michael and Laurel Middelaer, wanted the 58-year-old woman to serve 10 to 15 years in prison, while the prosecution was asking for 3-5 years.
In July, Berner was convicted of impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
On Monday, the court heard emotional victim impact statements from the family, as well as an apology from Berner herself.
The Middelaers say they weren’t expecting a high sentence.
Alexa’s father says he wants a minimum sentence of 10 years for drinking and driving causing death. Laurel Middelaer says there is more work to do. “We’re hoping that this case will act as a tipping point that causes educated, intelligent people to re-evaluate the issue.”
News1130 Legal Analyst Michael Shapray says a few years ago in an impaired driving causing death case, the defence could have argued for a conditional sentence, which means house arrest. But in 2008, the Canadian government put a stop to conditional sentences.
He says sentences between two and four years seem to be the standard since the laws were changed. “One thing we have to remember is that there is not just an impaired driving causing death charges, there is also an impaired driving causing bodily harm. There are two victims in this case.”
Shapray says the five-year driving ban that Berner has been slapped with is pretty standard, too.
