Man who killed 7-year-old Ukrainian girl in hit and run won’t get jail time

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The man who ran over a seven-year-old Ukrainian girl shortly after her family arrived in Canada to flee the Russian invasion of their country will serve no time behind bars after he admitted he failed to stop at the scene of the fatal collision in the Ville-Marie borough.

While delivering his decision at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday, Quebec Court Judge Pierre Labelle twice told Maria Legenkovska’s mother, Galyna Legenkovska, that nothing he could say about the sentence would help her cope with her loss.

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The judge agreed with a common suggestion made in May, from prosecutor Sylvie Dulude and defence lawyer Éric Coulombe, that Juan Manuel Becerra Garcia, 46, receive a sentence that includes six months of house arrest followed by a curfew for another six months. Following that, Becerra Garcia will be on probation for another 12 months. He is prohibited from driving for two years.

The judge told Becerra Garcia to expect that the conditions of his house arrest will be strictly monitored. He reminded him that he is required to have a land telephone line installed at his home soon and that he is expected to answer calls whenever his surveillance agent calls him.

If he does not follow the conditions closely, the judge said, Becerra Garcia risks having to serve time behind bars.

“Whatever I say here will not change anything at all in this tragedy. I don’t have this power. I hope that time reduces your suffering and that you are surrounded by people who can help you on your path,” the judge told Legenkovska, who was present in the courtroom.

On Dec. 13, 2022, Maria was on her way to school when she was hit by Becerra Garcia’s Jeep Cherokee in a school zone while she was walking near the intersection of Parthenais and de Rouen Sts. She was one of three Ukrainian siblings who came to Montreal with their mother just months earlier to flee the Russian invasion.

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Her father stayed in Ukraine to fight in the war.

When Becerra Garcia pleaded guilty in May, he admitted that he knew he struck something with his Jeep. He also said he looked back to see what happened and did not see the girl, so he continued on his way. He said he only realized he had struck the girl when he heard news reports about the hit and run later that day.

He turned himself in at a police station in Longueuil and co-operated with investigators, which Labelle listed as mitigating factors in his decision to agree with the sentencing recommendation. The judge noted that Becerra did not have a previous criminal record and that neither speed nor alcohol were factors.

“The message to the public is that, when we hit something without knowing what it is, we have to stop. We have to get out and find out what made that sound,” Coulombe told reporters after Garcia tried to make a statement outside the courtroom in Spanish. “He didn’t know that he hit the little girl.”

Dulude told reporters that “the judge considered the full portrait of the accused” while determining the sentence.

“He considered how he doesn’t represent a danger to society and, because he doesn’t have a criminal record, the risk of reoffending is weak, or even non-existent,” the prosecutor said.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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