Impaired driver who ran stop sign sentenced to more than 4 years in prison for fatal collision

CBC

02-04-2025

Family members of an 82-year-old woman from southern Manitoba wiped tears from their eyes and hugged each other inside a Winnipeg courtroom on Tuesday as the drunk driver responsible for causing her death was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
Alexander Joseph Grogan from Stonewall, Man., sat silently in court with his hands clasped during his sentencing hearing before Manitoba provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson after being convicted of impaired driving causing death and two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm in the death of Marilyn Warkentin, 82.
Court heard Grogan, who was 29 at the time of the collision on March 11, 2023, had drunk alcohol at a social event before he got into the driver's seat of his pickup truck and travelled southbound on Road 3 East with a passenger, 28.
He blew through a stop sign without slowing down and collided with an eastbound SUV on Highway 415 containing three people from Teulon, Man., located about 55 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Warkentin, a passenger in the vehicle, died at the scene just southwest of Teulon.
Warkentin's son, Terry Warkentin, who was driving the SUV, and her husband, Jacob Warkentin, were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Grogan and the passenger in his truck were not injured.
"For whatever reason, Mr. Grogan blew straight through that stop sign and hit that car and deprived the Warkentin family of their matriarch, deprived the Warkentin family of a loving member, deprived not only Jacob and Terry of their peace of mind, but the extended family in total," Eyrikson said.
He likened the impact of losing their loved one to an atomic bomb that has caused irreparable harm in their lives, and recalled how the family described their grief in the victim impact statements they made at a previous court hearing.
An obituary posted online says Warkentin was a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother who loved to thrift, sew, crochet, work in the garden and read.
Grogan was charged with four counts but two were stayed. He was tried on Aug. 13-14, 2024, on charges of driving impaired causing death and driving impaired causing bodily harm.
No prior driving violations
His lawyer, Matthew Gould, said Grogan invited a conviction, similar to pleading guilty but different in that pleading guilty entails formally admitting to the charges, making it hard to appeal.
Court heard Grogan was driving 100 km/h in a 90 km/h zone and had a blood alcohol level of 0.02 over Manitoba's limit of 0.08. He had no prior driving violations under the Highway Traffic Act, no criminal record and was assessed as having a low risk to reoffend.
Gould argued for a three-year sentence for impaired driving causing death, two years that would be served concurrently on charges of impaired driving causing bodily harm, and a two-year driving ban.
Gould said he didn't believe a credible argument could be made for Grogan to receive a greater sentence because the aggravating factors in the case, including his blood alcohol level, his manner of driving and his driving history were not the most serious compared with other cases where drivers had double the blood alcohol limit and had been travelling at a higher speed.
Crown attorney Brendan Roziere argued for a six-year sentence for impaired driving causing death with the same concurrent charges on causing bodily harm listed by the defence.
"The court's ultimate task is to impose a fit and appropriate sentence that ensures that there's no free ride, that everything's being accounted for," Roziere said.
Sending a message
When Eyrikson delivered his decision in court, he said it was important for Grogan's sentence to send a message to deter people from drunk driving, speeding and going through stop signs or traffic lights.
A message that this behaviour "will be treated with seriousness and that the community will look to know that people are not receiving slaps on the wrist," he said, adding that impaired driving is the leading criminal cause of death and injury in Canada.
Court heard Grogan is a trained electrician who worked for the Canadian National Railway since 2017. While he chose not to speak in court, his pre-sentence report showed remorse, Eyrikson said.
Grogan was joined by 17 members of his family, who sat teary-eyed, and had 101 letters of support, court heard.
"Mr. Grogan, you have a very supportive family, there's no doubt about that," Eyrikson said. "They remain steadfastly behind you and wish that this had never happened."
Eyrikson sentenced Grogan to four and half years in federal prison with a two-year concurrent sentence for causing bodily harm and a 10-year driving prohibition.
He then turned to four Warkentin family members in court and two listening online.
"While these words can't offer much, I hope at the end of the day, that this process can provide at least some peace," he said. "You all deserve to move past this."