House arrest recommended for driver in fatal hit-and-run

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Before the judge could accept Frederick Earhart’s guilty plea for a fatal hit-and-run, he needed him to admit that he knew he had struck a cyclist and didn’t stop.

He agreed, except for knowing that he hit someone. “That I do not know,” Earhart said at the beginning of a sentencing hearing with Johannes (Iwan) Smolders’ family looking on.

His defence lawyer Cassandra DeMelo spoke up. “He knew he hit something and didn’t stop to get out and check,” she told Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson.

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Earhart would tell a former girlfriend not long after the crash on Oct. 11, 2021, that he thought he hit a deer. For the next 95 days, while Smolders’ family were in shock and despair over who would hit a beloved husband, father, friend and community volunteer and leave him to die in a ditch,  Earhart hid his damaged Dodge Dakota pickup in a woodshed, acquired another vehicle and never turned himself in or took responsibility for what happened on that Thanksgiving weekend.

But on Friday afternoon, just days before what would have been a two-week trial in the Superior Court of Justice, the 54-year-old millwright from Alvinston entered a guilty plea after the Crown and the defence struck a deal.

They offered Nicholson a joint sentencing submission of two years-less-a-day of a conditional sentence – one year under house arrest with a GPS ankle bracelet and one year under curfew – plus two years of probation. A one-year driving prohibition is also sought and DeMelo told the judge the Ministry of Transportation will likely have more to say about Earhart’s future ability to drive.

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The plea deal was made on the eve of a trial that would have begun with a strong argument for a stay of proceedings because it has taken so long for the case to come to trial.

But after hearing seven heart-breaking victim impact statements and accepting four more that he promised to read, Nicholson made it known that he understood if the deal didn’t sit well with Smolders’s loved ones, given the “terribly devastating situation” and that the delay coming forward “made a bad situation worse.”

Assistant Crown attorney Lisa Defoe explained what happened the night Smolders, 45, described by those who loved him as a close friend, a mentor and an enthusiastic volunteer at many local organizations in the Strathroy area, vanished during an evening bike ride.

The OPP were called to the area of Calvert Drive and Mayfair Road in Adelaide-Metcalfe at about 8 p.m. not far from Smolders’ home. A witness had found a damaged bicycle and helmet at the side of the road, but a quick search of the ditches found no one.

Meanwhile, Smolders’ wife Sonia Freiter called police to say her husband left for a bike ride just after 6 p.m. and hadn’t returned. She drove up to the caution-taped portion of the road and gave a description.

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Smolders’ body wasn’t discovered until 9:54 p.m. in the north ditch just metres from the bicycle. He had suffered a broken leg, two broken arms and a broken back.

Officers picked up pieces of a headlight assembly and it was matched to either a Dodge Durango or Dakota.

Earhart had driven his father back to a seniors home in Strathroy when he struck Smolders. When he returned home, he told his then-girlfriend that he struck a deer. He wasn’t going to report the crash because “he was between insurance companies,” Defoe said.

That girlfriend would later leave tips on the Crime Stoppers line about him. A week after the crash, Earhart hid the truck in his woodshed and bought a Volkswagen Jetta.

Defoe said the girlfriend kept questioning Earhart, who eventually said he hit a cyclist from behind, got out, checked his pulse and left. He said he wouldn’t report it because “I will lose everything.”

DeMelo told Nicholson that she and her client vehemently disagreed with those facts and maintained Earhart didn’t know what he hit.

The police searched Earhart’s home in December and found the truck. The broken headlight parts matched and there was blood found on the bumper and windshield that matched Smolders’ DNA.

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Earhart was arrested Jan. 13, 2022.

Nicholson heard the emotional victim impact statements describing Smolders as an exceptional man who was first in line to support the community and volunteer organizations, including Scouts Canada, the local dragon boat team and the figure skating club.

He did all that for his family, and was a guide and mentor to his two children, both of whom still struggle with his loss.

“For Iwan, it was all about the kids,” said friend Heather Cousins, who led scouts with Smolders and noted that he was excited about a trip to The Nertherlands, where he grew up, to share his country with the Scouts. “He never got to attend,” she said.

His family spoke of their last Thanksgiving celebration that weekend. His mother-in-law Elke Freiter said they no longer gather because it is too difficult to see his empty chair.

But it was his wife Sonia Freiter who mapped out to Nicholson the excruciating journey she and her children have been on since the rock of the family was killed. They miss his enthusiasm for life, his compassion and his love, she said.

Freiter spoke of the grief that was mixed with fear and anxiety because Earhart refused to turn himself in. They were left for weeks despairing about who the driver was. Because she was considered to be a witness for Earhart’s trial, she couldn’t be told details about the investigation and was limited in what she could say about her husband’s death.

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Her mental health declined and she has lost a health-sector career that she had thrived in. She has only been inside the bedroom she shared with her husband three times since he died because she can see the area where he was struck from their window.

The plan that Thanksgiving Monday was for Smolders to go on an hour-long bike ride and be home in time for the bedtime routine with his kids. She recalled calling and texting her husband, going to the crime scene, calling out his name, and telling her children he was gone.

“And having to tell our children their father was dead and he had been hit by someone who made a choice to just leave their father in a ditch to die alone and not offering to help,” she said. It was “beyond horrific.”

Earhart stood at the end of the hearing after the family’s statements. “I have very much remorse for their loss,” he said.

“I just don’t know what happened. I’m very sad. I listened to all them and I know how much has been taken…. And I feel terrible for everybody. This is just terrible.”

Nicholson will have a decision about the sentence on Nov. 14.

jsims@postmedia.com

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