Labrador man gets 8-month conditional sentence for role in hit-and-run death in 2020
Simon Tremblay said he didn't stop his vehicle because he thought he'd run over roadkill
A Happy Valley-Goose Bay man has been given an eight-month conditional sentence and is banned from driving for two years related to the 2020 hit-and-run death of a 26-year-old man from Sheshatshiu.
Simon Tremblay, 37, sentenced by Justice Rolf Pritchard in Happy Valley-Goose Bay court on Thursday, has also been ordered to pay a $1,000 fine with a $300 victim surcharge, for his actions the night Ryan Nuke, 26, died.
Nuke was struck and killed by someone in August 2020 on the highway between Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Sheshatshiu. While police did not conclusively determine who killed him, the investigation resulted in charges the following May for Tremblay, for not remaining at the scene of Nuke's death.
Tremblay pleaded guilty on May 30 this year to four charges: failing to remain at the scene of a collision involving a death, failing to stop at an accident scene, failing to provide a name and address to police, and failing to render assistance to an injured person.
After Friday's sentencing, Nuke's mother, Brenda Montague, called the sentence a "slap on the wrist."
Even though court proceedings have ended, said Montague, she doesn't feel any closure.
"I think I will have more feelings afterwards but not right now. I don't know," she said. "I feel numb, I think I'm more angry, angry inside. The way it happened and how this turned out, the outcome of it and all I know is my son will not come back."
'What did we hit?'
While the agreed statement of facts presented in court did not establish who caused Nuke's death, they did conclude that Tremblay did at least run over him that night.
Tremblay was giving a ride to three people to a cabin on the highway to Sheshatshiu to pick up beer. On the way to the cabin the vehicle hit what one of the passengers described as "a bump," prompting them to ask, "What did we hit?" Tremblay slowed down but did not stop.
In a statement to police, he said he told his passengers he would stop on the way back to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to see what they had hit. However, on the way back, Tremblay saw firefighters directing traffic and turned around and headed toward Sheshatshiu, where the RCMP were conducting traffic stops. Tremblay was stopped by police, but there was no obvious damage to the vehicle and he denied hitting Nuke.
Following reports that Tremblay's passengers told people they were in the vehicle that ran over Nuke, the police obtained statements from the passengers and then seized Tremblay's vehicle on Aug. 14, 2020.
Police found cracks to the plastic air dam, a lower extension of the front bumper, which was also missing a large section on the passenger side. They also found what appeared to be dark human hair, and dark, reddish stains on parts of the vehicle. While the Crown acknowledged there was no damage to or "bodily material" found on the vehicle's front grille, the samples collected matched Nuke's DNA.
Police also collected video from a nearby business and statements from the paramedics dispatched to the scene — the last people to see Nuke alive — that indicated there were no other vehicles on the road other than the ambulance and Tremblay's vehicle.
In a statement to the RCMP on Aug. 18, 2020, Tremblay initially denied running over Nuke but then later said he may have run him over with the passenger side of the vehicle.
Tremblay said he thought he had hit roadkill, not someone's body. According to Tremblay, what he hit was not in one piece
Montague said the condition of her son's remains has hurt her ability to have closure.
"The shape his body was in when that happened is always on mind," she said. "I couldn't see his body at the funeral. He was sent out to St. John's for autopsy, he [was] gone for one week and I had to deal with that. There was no closure. At the funeral, I couldn't see his body, I didn't feel like he was there, there was no chance to say goodbye."
Montague says she believes there may be someone else out there who struck her son that night and hopes that person will come forward.
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