Supplied — Yasi FarshadRita Rahmati is a reporter for The Western Gazette, the official student newspaper for Western University. You can view them online at www.westerngazette.ca
London, ON — The driver involved in the car crash that caused the death of a Western University student will plead guilty on Wednesday, March 2.
Jared DeJong’s lawyer, Jim Dean, appeared in court on Jan. 13 to say his client will plead guilty for impaired driving causing death.
DeJong struck 18-year-old Andrea Christidis, a first-year Western health sciences student, on Oct. 7. She succumbed to her injuries two days later.
“The crown and I are still fleshing [the sentence] out between us. And whether or not we end up at a common ground we’ll have to see,” Dean said in an interview. “It won’t be a light sentence for certain.”
DeJong, a 24-year-old London man, had over 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood at the time of the accident. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, the maximum sentence for having a blood alcohol level over legal limit causing death is imprisonment for life.
As Dean explained, pleading guilty is a mitigating factor in terms of sentencing. The crown and Dean are currently negotiating a sentence. The crown attorney’s office declined to comment on the case.
“As with any case you review all of the disclosure, the evidence on the case, you sit down and look at the case and the merits of it, you lay your options and you decide which way you’re going to proceed,” Dean said.
“And obviously in this case the instructions I received after all of our discussions were to set a date to plead.”
Neither DeJong nor Dean have had any contact with the victim’s family.
DeJong is currently out on bail. The next court date is scheduled for March. 2.
