A driver who hit a young man on a skateboard before fleeing to Europe has been sentenced to two years less a day in prison. A lenient sentence, according to the judge.
Yanis Braham, 23, fatally hit Jacob Robitaille, who was on a skateboard on Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal, on February 26, 2023.
That evening, Mr. Robitaille, a young 21-year-old musician, was traveling west on rue Sainte-Catherine on a board. The young man had gone to buy spaghetti for a benefit dinner at the end of which he was to give his first show in front of an audience.
As he crossed the Sainte-Catherine-De Lorimier intersection, the light turned red for him, and green for drivers arriving from the north, to his right.
Yanis Braham was driving a Jeep Cherokee in the sixth and final lane of traffic. A witness said he saw the driver grab the skateboarder, then drag him “for a distance of about 20 feet.”
After briefly slowing down, Braham resumed driving without stopping or assisting the victim, which is required by law. The vehicle, which was rented, was abandoned 4 km further, in Old Montreal.
The impact scene was filmed by a surveillance camera. Witnesses called 911. Transported to hospital by ambulance, Jacob Robitaille died from his injuries the next morning.
On Tuesday, several members of Jacob Robitaille’s family came to read letters to the court testifying to their distress and suffering.
Ya Ching Tsao, the victim’s aunt, was speechless as she spoke of the impact of losing her beloved nephew.
“No tears can ease our suffering. You abandoned Jacob, who was injured and in distress. You chose to run away. To leave the country. A sentence can never make up for the loss of Jacob. On his birthday, there is no celebration. Only grief and suffering. »
Martin Roy, Jacob Robitaille’s uncle, spoke of his “infinite curiosity” about people, which led him to travel to India. “A great light has gone out in our lives, it can never be rekindled,” he said.
Jacob Robitaille’s mother spoke of a “derisory” sentence in the letter she read to the court.
“He who was against injustices was left in the middle of the street. […] It is a revolting sentence. Our pain is in perpetuity. Our lives are broken, she wrote. Every night my husband cries. Every night my daughter dreams of him. »
Flight to Europe
Yanis Braham had a criminal record at the time of the collision. He was convicted of breaking and entering in 2022. He was sentenced to community service in 2021 for dangerous driving, breaching conditions and possession of drugs.
According to the court, he spent part of 2023 in Europe, where he fled after the fatal collision.
Intercepted in Quebec for speeding on November 8, 2023, he handed over a false license to the police, before fleeing. A month later, on December 9, Mirabel police officers chased a driver who was traveling at high speed, and who ended up rolling over. Yanis Braham was in the vehicle. Wounded, he was arrested. He has been detained ever since.
Judge Antoine Piché, who was to judge the parties’ joint suggestion regarding the sentence of two years less a day in prison, and a three-year driving license suspension, expressed his discomfort with the “clemency” of the sentence, and recalled that Yanis Braham had several priors.
The parties’ suggestion, however, was not out of the ordinary, and Judge Piché gave his imprimatur.
“To see the victim’s family so affected this morning, I hope it awakened something in you,” he told Braham. The look the victim’s father gave you is that of a man who is suffering from your actions. »
The story so far
Yanis Braham, 23, has just been sentenced to two years less a day in prison.
He failed to stop after fatally striking Jacob Robitaille, 21, during a collision in downtown Montreal in February 2023.