House arrest for driver in crash that killed cyclist: ‘Very frustrating’

Article content

Sonia Freiter has been forced to deal with life without her husband since his death three years ago while waiting for the criminal justice system to deal with the man who left him to die in a ditch.

On Thursday, she said outside the London courthouse “the whole process doesn’t feel complete” after Frederick Earhart, 54, a millwright from Alvinston, was given a conditional sentence for failing to remain at the scene of the crash.

Article content

Earhart avoided incarceration for leaving Johannes (Iwan) Smolders to die after striking the cyclist with his pickup truck on Oct. 11, 2021, primarily because his case took too long to reach a conclusion.

“The criminal process has been very challenging for us. We have been victims and dealing with the grief of the loss of our family member,” Freiter said.

The case dragged on since Smolders’ death on Oct. 11, 2021, and Earhart’s arrest three months later. Her children lost their active and encouraging father. Their close extended family has grieved with them for the man who was devoted to them and his community.

Freiter’s grief was made more complicated because she was a potential witness had the case gone to trial, which meant she was denied critical information that would have been introduced at a trial that she needed for closure.

“The delays are beyond out of our control. It has been very frustrating to come to a point where a trial wasn’t’ possible just because of time,” she said.

“I don’t necessarily feel like the process is complete. I feel incomplete with what happened,” she said.

Article content

Article content

Superior Court Justice Spencer Nicholson agreed to the joint sentencing submission from the Crown and the defence offered at Earhart’s guilty plea hearing last month just days before he was to go to trial, where the defence said it would have argued for a stay of proceedings because of trial delay.

Nicholson made it clear, had the circumstances been different, “I may well have imposed a custodial sentence as opposed to have Mr. Earhart serve his sentence in the community.”

Under presumptive time lines established by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Jordan decision in 2016, criminal matters in the Superior Court must be completed in 30 months to ensure the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time.

Earhart’s presumptive Jordan date, the deadline for the case to be completed, was July 14, 2024.

“In reaching the plea agreement here and the joint submission, the Crown recognized there was a risk that a court would conclude that the Jordan date had expired prior to trial,” Nicholson said in his sentencing decision.

“If that were to occur, Mr. Earhart would go unpunished,” he said.

Article content

But Nicholson acknowledged the decision may fall flat with Smolders’ loved ones. “I do not anticipate that Sonia, her children and their extended family and friends will take any solace in the sentence proposed by both the Crown and defence,” he said.

“They have truly sustained a profound loss. They have been robbed of many years with Iwan, who was still a young man with many years and experiences ahead of him.”

Smolders, 45, was killed after Earhart struck him with his Dodge Dakota pickup truck while Smolders was cycling on Calvert Drive and Mayfair Road in Adelaide-Metcalfe, not far from his home, during the evening of Oct. 11, 2021.

HIs wife reported him missing just after someone found the bicycle at the side of the road. Smolders’ body wasn’t found until two hours later in the north ditch, metres from his crumpled bicycle and helmet.

Earhart, who told Nicholson at his guilty plea he knew he hit something, but he didn’t know it was a cyclist, was returning to his residence after driving his father back to a Strathroy seniors’ home.

Article content

For 95 days, Smolders family, deep in grief for losing a beloved husband, father, friend and community volunteer, didn’t have an answer to who had struck him. Meanwhile, after a police media alert went out calling for information related to the crash, Earhart hid his damaged pickup truck in a woodshed, and three days later, acquired a Volkswagen Jetta. He never turned himself in.

The police found a broken headlight assembly that matched a Dodge Durango or Dakota at the crime scene. They also had some Crime Stoppers tips, primarily from Earhart’s then-girlfriend, who said Earhart told her he hit a deer, then admitted he struck the cyclist.

Earhart denied that version of the events and maintained he didn’t know he struck Smolders.

The police searched Earhart’s home in December 2021 and found the hidden truck. The broken headlight assembly pieces matched. Smolders’ DNA was found in the blood on the bumper and windshield.

Nicholson was clearly moved by the victim impact statements from Freiter and other friends and family that were presented at Earhart’s last court hearing.

Article content

“One recurring theme in these statements is the exacerbation of the pain to the family and friends, to Iwan’s small community, because Mr. Earhart chose to cover up his role in the accident for almost three months,” he said.

“It is Mr. Earhart’s actions after Iwan’s death that were particularly reprehensible. For 95 days, Sonia was suspicious of all the members of her community, wondering which of them was responsible for such a loss and chose to remain silent,” he said.

Nicholson noted Earhart has been following strict bail conditions since his arrest. He has a dated criminal record and is in counselling for an alcohol addiction.

will be under house arrest terms for the first year of his sentence and have a curfew for the second year. He must wear an ankle GPS-monitor for the entire conditional sentence and complete 40 hours of community service.  After completing the term, he will be placed on probation for two years. He is prohibited from driving for one year.

Earhart was ordered not to communicate with Smolders’ family.

Nicholson stressed the victim impact statements mattered to the court. “Not only is it tremendously important for offenders such as Mr. Earhart  to hear those sentiments, but it is critical that, as one of the judges of this court, we never lose sight of catastrophic consequences suffered by victims in events such as this.”

Article content

Freiter said she appreciated Nicholson’s words because her statement was “the first opportunity I know for myself that I felt heard in this whole process.”

She thanked her community for their support and for coming forward with information for the investigation. “Though nothing can bring him back to us, we can now work toward processing our grief as a family, now that the criminal legal process has come to an end.”

But she wanted people to remember her extraordinary husband.

“Please take a moment today to perform an act of kindness as Iwan would have done in order to make the world a little brighter for everyone,” she said.

jsims@postmedia.com

Article content