The B.C. drunk driver sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars for killing a four-year-old girl is appealing her conviction.
Carol Berner was sentenced Friday for killing Ladner youngster Alexa Middelaer. The girl was run down alongside her aunt as the pair fed a horse at the side of a country road in May 2008.
Berner was doing 91 kilometres an hour in a 50-km/h zone on a rural road with speed bumps. During the trial, the court heard Berner tell an undercover police officer she had three glasses of wine prior to the accident.
Berner's lawyer, David Tarnow, has listed several grounds for appealing the conviction, including arguing that Justice Peder Gulbransen made several errors during the trial and should have thrown out the results of a roadside breath test. He notes that his client had no previous criminal record before the accident.
The notice of appeal argues that Gulbransen should not have allowed statements Berner made to Delta police while she was questioned in the back of a squad car for 30 minutes after the accident.
Berner is seeking an acquittal, a judicial stay of proceedings or a new trial.
Tarnow said that, based on case law, his client should not spend any time behind bars, partly because she was not "excessively intoxicated" at the time of the incident.
He said the Crown should not have been allowed to present victim impact statements during the trial, including a multimedia presentation and picture essays about Alexa.
Tarnow called Berner's sentence "excessive in all the circumstances." He wants it reduced to a suspended sentence served in the community with probation.
Meanwhile, Alexa's parents, who hoped their daughter's killer would spend 10 years in jail, called her sentence light and unacceptable.
Laurel Middelaer said that Canadians should lobby their provincial and federal representatives for changes to drunk-driving laws, including minimum sentences.
She said handing Berner a sentence of less than three years – out of a possible maximum of 25 – sends the wrong message.
