OPP officer to spend two years in prison following fatal accident
Sergeant Darryl Storey was driving a police vehicle that collided with a car driven by 18 year old Jasmine Veneruzzo in 2008
CBC News
Posted: Jan 18, 2013 2:40 PM ET
Last Updated: Jan 18, 2013 3:57 PM ET
Brenda Veneruzzo praised the judge for the message the sentence sends. (Jody Porter/CBC)
Related
Related Stories
External Links
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
Brenda Veneruzzo says she's satisfied with the sentence handed down to the man who was found responsible for her daughter's death.
Jasmine Veneruzzo, 18, was killed instantly when OPP Sergeant Darryl Storey's police cruiser collided with her vehicle in 2008.
Jasmine Veneruzzo was killed in a car collision Dec. 3, 2008 Everest Funeral Home Her mother asked the court today for the “maximum sentence” for Storey, who was ordered to serve two years in prison. Veneruzzo praised the judge for the message the sentence sends.
“Someone will see the sentence and what has happened to this gentleman and they will think twice about speeding to save the next life,” she said.
In Superior Court Friday, the crown and defence submitted a joint submission and, around 1:30 p.m., Justice Casimir Herold rendered his decision.
Three benches full of Veneruzzo family and friends awaited the officer’s sentence.
Storey committed one of the most serious crimes in the criminal code, Herold said, tragically ending a promising life in an instant.
While criminal law does not restore a life, criminal law can impose a sentence appropriate to the circumstances, the judge added.
“Storey miserably and tragically failed to serve and protect,” Herold continued.
The judge considered Storey's post traumatic stress disorder as a mitigating factor in sentencing. He said Veneruzzo’s death was not in vain if it helped to push the issue of PTSD in police officers to the forefront.
Storey was given a two-year sentence, which the judge recommended be served in the minimum security Beaver Creek prison in Gravenhurst.
Storey handed the court his licence as he was escorted by police officers from the room.
Herold praised the Veneruzzo family for their composure as they sat quietly while the sentence was rendered.
Share Tools
Latest Thunder Bay News Headlines
- Elevator workers picket courthouse construction
- Picketing elevator maintenance workers greeted crews heading in to work at the new courthouse in Thunder Bay on Friday morning. more »
- Drones could help fight forest fires
- Unmanned planes could soon be helping fight forest fires in the northwest if a Lakehead University professor's research pans out. more »
- Stranded campers get out of park on temporary road
- Campers and staff at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park made it out of the park last night. more »
- First Nations hit hard by 'suicide contagion'
- A Sudbury clinical psychologist says young people are more likely to consider suicide if they know of someone their age who has taken their own life. more »
Must Watch
Top News Headlines
- Will Rob Ford's supporters leave Ford Nation?
- The growing controversy over a purported video alleging to show Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine may be testing the faith of even his most die-hard supporters. But experts say Ford's policies may trump whatever personal issues he's facing, and that his supporters may rally behind him. more »
- Royal Bank pledges not to outsource jobs for cash savings
- Royal Bank has promised it will never outsource a Canadian job to a foreign worker solely to save money. more »
- Neil Macdonald: How serious is Obama about curbing the drone surge?
- In a key speech this week, the U.S. president set out a host of supposed new safeguards for America's controversial practice of remote-controlled rough justice. But as Neil Macdonald writes, the underlying rationale for drone use has not fundamentally changed. more »
- Making The Mandela Tapes
- Producer Robin Benger describes how he obtained broadcast access to interviews Nelson Mandela recorded in the 1990s. A CBC Radio Ideas program on the Mandela tapes airs May 28. more »
- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denies using crack cocaine
- The mayor of Canada's largest city told a packed news conference that he doesn't use crack cocaine and isn't a crack addict. more »

