I hope his new "boyfriends" treat him well in prison .......
EDMONTON — A 23-year-old Duffield man who hit a cyclist and left him for dead in a ditch in 2007 was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison.
Casey John Earl Meads was also given three months for obstructing police, to be served concurrently.
Provincial Court Judge Larry Anderson said he didn't believe Meads's claim that he thought he had hit a deer while driving on Stony Plain Road near Anthony Henday Drive in the early-morning hours of Sept. 15, 2007.
Anderson said that if Meads had made "even a modicum of eff ort," he "could easily have found out" that his victim was a person and not an animal.
When Meads struck the cyclist, it wouldn't have sounded like a deer, Anderson said. Meads also dragged the bicycle for about 100 metres along the road, strewing bicycle parts along the way.
Anderson said there were several aggravating circumstances involved in the case, including that Meads had been drinking that night, that he had constructed a "web of lies" to hide what had happened, and that he did not stop to help the cyclist, William Timothy Korol.
Meads appeared unemotional as he was handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom. Several of his supporters wept.
Meads is also prohibited from driving for three years after he is released from prison.
According to an agreed statement of facts presented to court earlier this year, Meads and some friends had been drinking at a south-side bar hours before the incident.
He was driving his red Dodge Ram pickup on Stony Plain Road near Anthony Henday Drive when he hit Korol.
The 38-year-old cyclist was thrown 20 to 30 metres into a ditch, where he was later found dead.
Meads's truck dragged the bicycle about 100 to 150 metres down the road. He later told a friend he thought he had hit a deer.
Later that morning, another driver stopped when he saw the mangled bike on the road, along with a running shoe and a ball cap.
He found the cyclist's body in the ditch.
The medical examiner determined Korol had "acute ethanol and cannabis intoxication" at the time of his death.
He was riding in the direction of oncoming traffic, was not wearing a helmet and did not have any lights or reflectors on the bike.
Meads, who pleaded guilty to the charges in January, must also submit a DNA sample to the national databank.
azabjek@thejournal.canwest.com
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