Jeremiah Jobb was expecting to start a penitentiary sentence Friday, but instead, he’ll remain free on bail until at least September.
The 23-year-old man pleaded guilty in a Prince Albert courtroom to two counts of impaired driving causing death for his role in a crash that killed 21-year-old Taylor Litwin and 17-year-old Brandi Lapine.
The Crown and defence were prepared to issue a joint submission for sentencing following Jobb’s guilty plea, but Justice R.D. Maher adjourned the case to request a Gladue report.
A Gladue report explores factors in Jobb’s First Nation background that may have contributed to him committing the crime. The report then takes into account all reasonable alternatives to incarceration. The process is fairly new for aboriginal offenders in Saskatchewan.
The victims’ family members were frustrated with the decision.
“I was hoping to have closure today, so we could put this all to rest,” said Josephine Ledoux, Lapine’s mother.
Lapine was pregnant at the time of the crash. Her unborn child survived but was three months premature.
The tiny girl was named Aurora Sky. She spent five months in Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital, where doctors eventually placed a shunt in her head to drain fluid off her tiny brain. She had suffered a head injury during the car wreck while she was still inside her mother's womb.
Doctors said the child is likely to have some form of disability for the rest of her life, and according to her grandmother, she’s still struggling.
“Aurora is in the hospital right now. She’s been throwing up. She’s been extra irritable. She is still on oxygen. We don’t know, honestly, what is going to happen with her. She is still hanging in and she is still strong,” said Ledoux.
The judge requested the Gladue report for early September. Sentencing will likely take place later that month.
--- with files from The Canadian Press
