Court: Leslie Moxam sentenced for crash death of Lorraine Moth

Source: Gulf Islands Driftwood

BRITISH COLUMBIA- An Alberta man convicted of dangerous driving causing death in a crash involving former Salt Spring resident Lorraine Moth in Athabasca, Alberta has been sentenced to 42 months in jail.

Leslie Moxam will also face a five-year, Canada-wide driving prohibition once he is released from jail in Alberta.

The sentence was announced Friday in Athabasca Provincial Court by Judge Bruce Garriock, who found Moxam guilty of the charge last month. According to Moth’s sister Loretta Rithaler, who lives on Salt Spring Island, Garriock took the time needed to review written submissions and relevant case law before issuing the sentence.

Moth was also the daughter of well-known islander Rita Dods. Moth was killed on Oct. 18, 2007 when Moxam’s pick-up truck went through a stop sign at 31 km/hr above the speed limit and struck her vehicle. While Moxam admitted to drinking alcohol and had both alcohol and Valium in his system at the time of the crash, he was acquitted of an impaired driving causing death charge.

His driving record included three prior impaired driving convictions and one for dangerous driving.

Rithaler told the Driftwood that while the sentence cannot return Lorraine to her family or repair the hole left in their hearts, she felt that Crown counsel “were successful and did a very good job in seeking and obtaining a strong, irrefutable sentence, which had no likelihood for appeal. For that, we are truly thankful.”

She added, “We are disappointed, of course, that anybody who kills someone as the result of their incredibly poor choices would ever be permitted to drive again.”

“On Lorraine’s behalf, I believe the Crown did their best, and received a decision that is far greater than the norm has been in the recent past for such offences.”

Rithaler also said she hopes the courts will see the case “as setting a new, higher standard in support of stronger sentences for criminal offences of this nature.”

Rithaler said she and her family were “very grateful to all the emergency workers, doctors, Athabasca and Boyle RCMP, and Fort Saskatchewan/Athabasca Crown counsel for all they did for Lorraine at her time of need and have done to support our family through the legal process.”

She also gave special thanks “to all our friends who have been such tremendous support throughout this tragic event.”

A similar case on Salt Spring is awaiting judgement of an appeal heard on Nov. 4. Campbell River resident Brian McIvor was convicted of the same charge — dangerous driving causing death — stemming from a North End Road collision that killed Salt Spring resident Katherine Chorney on Oct. 24, 2007.

McIvor appealed a one-year jail sentence issued in January of 2009.