{"id":639779,"date":"2026-04-30T04:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639779\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T04:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:04:12","slug":"sentencing-delay-for-man-who-caused-2024-boxing-day-crash-that-killed-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639779\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentencing delay for man who caused 2024 Boxing Day crash that killed child"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was incredibly emotional in a Calgary courtroom on Wednesday, when more than a dozen people read victim impact statements during a sentencing hearing for 31-year-old Duane Nepoose.<\/a><\/p>\n

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He was involved in a deadly Boxing Day crash near Macleod Trail and Southland Drive in 2024.<\/p>\n

A young girl, nine-year-old Victoria Desjardin, was killed in the crash and her mother and sister were badly injured.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t9-year-old Victoria Desjardin was killed when the stolen van Nepoose was driving blew a red light at Macleod Trail and Southland Drive and crashed into her family\u2019s vehicle.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tProvided to Global News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In June of 2025, Nepoose pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death, as well as three counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm, robbery and flight from police.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:05
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDriver pleads guilty in crash that killed 9-year-old Victoria Desjardins\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s sentencing hearing, the girl\u2019s mother, Amanda Reitmeier, spoke of feeling helpless and unable to protect her children while she was lying in a hospital bed with one daughter in a coma and the other who had passed away in the crash.<\/p>\n

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Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am broken. I am mad. I am sad. I am numb,\u201d she told the court.<\/p>\n

Reitmeier also spoke to Nepoose saying \u201cI will never forgive you. This was not an accident. This was a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFamily of young Boxing Day crash victim\u00a0focuses\u00a0on \u2018little moments\u2019 amid recovery\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Victoria\u2019s grandfather told the court \u201cWhen I see children playing or walking together, I cry because that could be Victoria.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDuring the trial, video from the Calgary Police Service\u2019s HAWCS helicopter showed Nepoose driving a stolen van erratically through south Calgary and Tsuut\u2019ina Nation before speeding up Macleod Trail, eventually colliding with four other vehicles near Southland Drive.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Following the presentation of impact statements, the next step is supposed to be for the judge to impose a sentence but that was set over for a later date \u2014 an upsetting delay for the victim\u2019s family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been waiting for more than a year for this day and delay after delay after delay with no one taking into account the emotional wellbeing of this family,\u201d said Kelsey Morash, a family friend and end-of-life specialist. \u201cIt does seem to favour the accused.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crown is seeking a sentence of between 8.5 and 9.5 years in prison.<\/p>\n

The defence has not yet indicated what its recommendation will be, but did indicate to the court that the two sides are far apart in terms of sentencing recommendations.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalgary crash: 9-year-old girl dead after robbery suspect sets off massive Boxing Day collision\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size It was incredibly emotional in a Calgary courtroom on Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[309832,64,63,802,48,309833,85,309834],"class_list":["post-639779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-2024-boxing-day-crash","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-crime","tag-duane-nepoose","tag-sports","tag-victoria-desjardins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}