Family, friends deliver searing victim impact statements for deadly Westboro hit and run

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On a beautiful April day, not unlike the April day a year ago when she last walked hand-in-hand with her husband, Shirlene Byne stood in an Ottawa courtroom and spoke of loss, grief and anger.

The loss — “vast in its impact” — was of her husband of 21 years, Franco Micucci, who was struck by a driver fleeing police as the couple crossed Richmond Road on one of their evening walks through their Westboro neighbourhood.

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The grief was for her children, whose world, she said, was upended that evening on April 15, 2023.

The anger she reserved for Tevon Bacquain, 23, who pleaded guilty to flight from police and failing to remain at the scene after striking Micucci, leaving him crumpled and bleeding on the roadway with a catastrophic brain injury. He died six days later in hospital after being taken off life support.

“You will never have the benefit of my absolution for what you did to my husband, my family and our friends,” Byne said, staring at Bacquain in the prisoner’s box as she read a victim impact statement in court Thursday. “You will not have the privilege of my mercy because you certainly showed none for Franco.”

Micucci was a man whose life revolved around his children, she said. One who made strangers feel welcome and his family feel protected.

“Not once in our two decades together did he ever let me walk on the outside side of the sidewalk,” she recalled.

“Franco’s capacity for kindness, compassion, generosity, humility and love was endless. That’s what made him truly unique in this self-centred world.”

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Byne’s was the first of six searing victim impact statements read into the record at a sentencing hearing before Ontario Court Justice Marlyse Dumel. Others came from Micucci’s step-daughter, Nadya Byne, who works at Kingston General Hospital and spent days at his bedside in the ICU in Ottawa, and his daughter Daisy Micucci, who was just 16 when she answered an anguished phone call from her mother at the scene.

Micucci’s lifelong friend, Jason Lutes, recalled how Micucci was scarred at an early age when his younger brother, Mario, was killed in a bicycle accident. Micucci was only 11 when Mario died.

“I thought that was what made him a cautious person,” Lutes told the court. “I used to think he was worried about hurting himself. Now, after losing him, I understand that it was much more than that. It was not until I was much older that I realized Franco’s grieving never ended. He understood that his life didn’t just belong to him. He had to be careful because he was now his parents’ only child. When he was older, he understood that his life also belonged to his wife and his children.”

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Caution was nowhere to be found in Bacquain on the evening of the tragedy. He was fleeing police in a Honda Civic, racing north at high speed on Kirkwood Avenue when he swerved to go east on Richmond and struck Miccuci in the pedestrian crosswalk. Bacquain continued north, his windshield smashed by the impact, before abandoning the Honda in a grocery store parking lot. He texted his mother and told her to report the car as stolen — “now now now,” he urged her — in an attempt to escape responsibility. He was arrested that evening hiding in a backyard about a kilometre from the crash scene.

Police were cleared of any wrongdoing by the provincial Special Investigations Unit, which found officers had called off the pursuit well before the deadly collision.

Assistant Crown attorney Hart Shouldice is seeking a six-year sentence for Miciccu’s death, which he blamed on “multiple reckless and criminal decisions,” and an additional 90-day sentence for an aggravated assault charge Bacqauin is facing for an unrelated incident. Police also found 29 pills of hydromorphone — a synthetic heroin — in Bacquain’s car and federal prosecutors are asking for a 12-month sentence for trafficking to be served concurrently.

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Bacquain’s lawyer, Joseph Addelman, is asking for a sentence of between 24 and 30 months, including 566 days credit for the more than a year Bacquain has already spent in custody. Addelman cited Bacquain’s mental health issues, substance abuse problems, and the bullying and racism he faces as a mixed-race person as mitigating factors.

Bacquain, dressed in a black shirt, sat silently in the prisoner’s box, his eyes downcast for much of the appearance, occasionally looking up toward Micucci’s family. Once he dabbed tears from his eyes.

When invited to speak by the judge, he expressed his “deepest sorrow” to Micucci’s family.

“I know nothing can be said or done to make things better, to reverse time, and there’s no words to describe the guilt that I will carry for the rest of my days,” he said.

“I would never ask or expect to be forgiven. … I will say sorry for everything that happened and I wish nothing but peace and some sort of happiness to you all.”

Dumel reserved her sentencing decision for a later date.

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