“I have become a mother without a child.”
Maggie Lao, mother of Annie Leung, who was killed in a 2013 hit-and-run in Port Coquitlam, spoke to the court Wednesday during the sentencing hearing for the man who killed her daughter.
The Crown called for a four- to six-month sentence for Irwin Richard Franz, who pleaded guilty last year to a charge of failing to stop at an accident scene.
Surveillance footage of the area of the accident — the Riverside secondary school student was in a crosswalk at Mary Hill and Pitt River roads — showed that Franz initially got out of his black pickup truck but returned to his vehicle and fled without giving his name and information.
Lao, crying, told the court during her victim impact statement that the death has been devastating for her family.
“My painful feeling still makes it feel like it happened yesterday… Words can’t describe how this tragedy has impacted me, my husband and my family.”
In the days after Leung’s death, she said, the family was asked by police to take part in a press conference in order to ask the driver, who was still unidentified, to turn himself in. Lao said that was one of the hardest things she had ever done, calling it “another torture to my broken heart.”
Franz, a 75-year-old retired psychiatric nurse, also had an opportunity to address the court and the family of the victim. He apologized to Lao and Ricky Leung, Annie’s father, reiterating some of what he told the media in the days after his arrest in July 2014, saying he panicked after he saw what had happened.
“Not an hour goes by when this does not enter my mind hauntingly,” he said. “I wake up every night hoping it’s a nightmare.”
On top of the four- to six-month sentence, Crown is also calling for a two-year driving prohibition and for Franz to provide a DNA sample.
Franz’ lawyer disagreed with the Crown’s recommendation, saying a fine of $2,000 to $3,000 would be more appropriate. He also noted that if the judge felt that jail time is required, it should be limited and served intermittently.
During its submissions, the Crown said Franz, who lives less than a kilometre from the collision site, had multiple opportunities to turn himself in to police. He was questioned by a Coquitlam RCMP officer in the days after the crash when investigators noticed similarities between the truck parked in his driveway and the one seen in surveillance footage. At the time, Franz said he only knew about the hit-and-run from what he had seen in the media.
Still, police began surveilling the vehicle while a search warrant was sought and officers following the truck were told to apprehend Franz if it appeared he was tampering with evidence. Eventually, police seized the vehicle.
Twelve days after the collision Franz, who had been being treated for depression and anxiety at the time, checked himself into Royal Columbia Hospital after suffering what the court heard was a “major depressive episode.” He stayed in hospital until Oct. 17 and when he was released, he made arrangements with his lawyer to come forward to the RCMP.
Franz is expected to return the Port Coquitlam provincial court on June 20 for sentencing.
@gmckennaTC
