A Winnipeg man twice jailed for his part in two high-profile fatal collisions in stolen vehicles has now admitted to injuring two police officers while trying to flee in another stolen vehicle.
The 32-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a dozen offences, admitting to being behind the wheel of a stolen car three times over the course of a month.
Court heard the man — the Free Press is not identifying him in order to report details of his youth record — was driving a stolen Hyundai Santa Fe in the area of Dominion Street and Ellice Avenue on March 21, 2023, when police attempted to pull him over. He accelerated toward the police cruiser, squeezing between it and a parked car before speeding away.
JOE BRYKSA / FREE PRESS FILES
Scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident on Dec 11, 2009 in which the driver of the white Subaru was killed after being hit by the stolen SUV.
Police didn’t follow the vehicle due to safety concerns and the driver wasn’t arrested until a month later, following another incident where he rammed a police cruiser. Police spotted him driving a stolen vehicle in the area of Broadway and Fort Street just before midnight, April 23, and activated their siren. The man rammed the police cruiser, injuring two officers, before racing out of the city, blowing through red lights at speeds as high as 120 km/h.
The man was arrested just outside of Portage la Prairie after his vehicle ended up in the ditch.
In a third incident days earlier, the man was captured on security video driving a stolen car away from a Keewatin Street Safeway store, where a co-accused had just stolen $300 worth of food.
At Tuesday’s hearing, provincial court Judge Sandy Chapman agreed to a Crown and defence recommendation adjourning sentencing to November or December, which would allow him to serve the remainder of a recommended 58-month sentence in a provincial jail, not prison.
“He has had some negative experience in the penitentiary in the past in terms of gang involvement and he is trying to separate himself from that lifestyle,” defence lawyer Adam Hodge told Chapman.
At the time of his most recent arrest, the man was bound by a 15-year driving prohibition put in place following his 2011 conviction for dangerous driving causing death. The then-19-year-old man was sentenced to the equivalent of seven years in prison for the December 2009 death of 47-year-old Zdzislaw Andrzejczak.
The man was driving a stolen Hummer H2 when he sped through a stop sign at Alfred Avenue and Andrews Street and collided with a compact model Subaru, killing its driver, Andrzejczak.
The man and a passenger ran away without providing any assistance to Andrzejczak. He was arrested three days later.
Data retrieved from the Hummer showed it had been travelling at 112 km/h five seconds before impact.
The man’s actions “are what every law-abiding driver is afraid of when he or she gets in their vehicle and drives somewhere,” Judge Catherine Carlson said at his sentencing hearing.
TREVOR HAGAN / FREE PRESS FILES
Zdzislaw Andrzejczak, 47, was killed when his Subaru Justy was hit by a stolen Hummer at the corner of Alfred and Andrews in 2009.
“This is terrifying to members of the public, because no matter how carefully they drive they can’t avoid collisions caused by the unpredictable and reckless driving that occurred in this case.”
Court heard the man had a “tumultuous” upbringing marked by domestic abuse, substance abuse and time in foster care, but had the support of family members “committed to keeping him on the right side of the law.”
“He is a prime candidate for rehabilitation and will have many years upon release to be a productive member of society, if he chooses to be,” Carlson said.
In 2008, the then-16-year-old offender pleaded guilty to being one of seven youths inside a stolen Chevy Silverado that was racing a stolen SUV on Portage Avenue when the SUV crashed into a cab, killing its driver, Antonio Lanzelotti.
The teen was sentenced to 72 days in custody and two years of supervised probation.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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