Carol Berner sentencing appeal thrown out
Posted March 21, 2013 7:09 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – An appeal to have Carol Berner’s 2 1/2 year prison sentence reduced has been thrown out by the BC Court of Appeal. She was convicted in the drunk driving death of four-year-old Alexa Middelaer.
Since her bid has been rejected, her last legal option is to file a sentence appeal with Canada’s highest court.
Berner smashed into a car that hit and killed four-year-old Alexa Middelaer in May, 2008 while the young girl was feeding a horse on the side of a rural road. Middelaer’s aunt was also seriously hurt.
Berner was sentenced to 30 months in prison and given a five-year driving ban in November, 2010 but she has hardly spent any time in custody. She was granted bail after she filed appeals for her conviction and her sentence.
The Supreme Court of Canada refused her bid to challenge her convictions yesterday and that’s something Alexa’s father Michael was pleased to hear. “I think it’s absolutely clear that Berner is fundamentally, solely responsible in the criminal sense in the death of my daughter and that’s an important message.”
Her lawyers unsuccessfully petitioned to throw out the conviction, arguing new information could exist and that her car was improperly handled by police and insurance investigators.
