Hit-and-run driver sentenced to 16 months in jail for dangerous driving causing death

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Ian Paul Joly was sentenced to 16 months in a provincial jail last week for dangerous driving causing the death of Christopher Fox, who died after he was struck by Joly’s van in a Circle K parking lot on Sept. 15, 2020.

Superior Court Justice Kerry McVey called it a “very difficult and sad case” as she imposed the jail sentence on Friday.

Fox was 33 when Joly struck and killed him with his van during a heated argument in the convenience store parking lot on Baseline Road nearly four years ago.

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Joly, 39, pleaded guilty earlier this year to dangerous driving causing Fox’s death and admitted to striking Fox with his van and running over his body.

He then filed an application to reverse his guilty plea, claiming the plea was “uninformed and involuntary,” and he asked the judge to instead proceed to a trial.

The judge denied his request, saying the pressure Joly felt in pleading guilty was “not enough to cast doubt on the voluntariness of the plea.”

In her sentencing decision, McVey noted Joly has consistently denied knowing he struck and killed Fox as he drove away that day.

“Mr. Joly is not before the court alleging he intentionally struck or intentionally harmed Mr. Fox. He has never been charged with murder, manslaughter or any kind of assault,” the judge said.

“That is not to say that what happened was an accident — it wasn’t. Mr. Fox lost his life because of Mr. Joly’s conduct.”

According to a summary of the facts, Fox was killed in the aftermath of a fight that started in the Circle K parking lot after Joly saw Fox near his van in a “verbal confrontation” with Joly’s girlfriend.

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Joly punched Fox repeatedly and continued to punch him as he lay on the ground.

Fox then followed Joly back to the van and blocked his path. At one point, Joly put the van in reverse, turned his steering wheel to the right and accelerated backwards, with the front end moving towards Fox. The driver’s side tires “clipped” his feet and legs, causing him to fall as the van drove over him in reverse.

Joly was seen by witnesses pausing for a moment before steering around Fox’s body and driving away from the scene.

Fox was rushed to hospital but died of internal bleeding from a tear to his heart.

Joly was arrested 20 minutes later after witnesses recorded his licence plate number as he drove away.

“In the context of a heated dispute — one that Mr. Joly had aggravated by turning to physical violence — Mr. Joly chose to both inch his vehicle toward Mr. Fox as he stood in front of his van, and then he chose to back out of the parking lot while Mr. Fox stood at his window. Doing so inadvertently and tragically visited fatal injuries on Mr. Fox,” McVey said Friday.

Joly “did not go looking for trouble that day,” McVey said, and he was responding to a “hostile situation.”

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The judge turned to Fox’s grieving family members, who have been seated in the courtroom since the outset of the lengthy proceedings, and said she did not blame the victim for his part in the altercation.

“Mr. Joly must still answer for the consequences of his actions, despite them being unintended,” McVey said. “The sentence I impose must reflect the loss of Mr. Fox’s life — a permanent loss that shattered the lives of his family.”

In a hearing in June, Crown attorneys Dallas Mack and Shakiba Azimi called for a sentence of two years less a day in a provincial jail, along with a driving ban for five years after Joly’s sentence is served.

Joly, who does not have a defence lawyer and represented himself, asked the judge to spare him from jail and to instead impose a conditional sentence that includes house arrest.

“I will not be imposing a conditional sentence, I will be sentencing you to real jail,” McVey said at the outset of Friday’s sentencing hearing. “A conditional sentence does not sufficiently reflect the loss of life.”

The judge said a 16-month term would be appropriate for the first-time offender with a “pro-social” history.

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Joly told the judge he “lost everything” — including his job and his house — after he was banned from driving as part of his bail conditions.

The judge declined to uphold the driving ban following Joly’s release from jail, saying he would need a vehicle to resume his employment once he is released from custody.

“I believe you to be a decent man,” McVey told Joly. “You are a good father to your children and I genuinely wish you well.”

Fox and his family are from Brockville, where he was known as the town “prankster” who would regularly place teddy bears on streetlights and other visible spots on busy downtown streets.

McVey described him as a “loyal, funny, curious, artistic” man whose family “loved him more than life.”

Fox’s family has travelled from Brockville to the Elgin Street courthouse for each of Joly’s court dates.

“No length of sentence can reflect the value of Mr. Fox’s life,” McVey told his family. “I hope these proceedings offer some measure of calm, so you can now start to focus on the positive memories of Christopher. I wish you nothing but peace.”

ahelmer@postmedia.com

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