Golf pro gets 4 1/2 years for fatal drunken hit-and-run: ‘Cowardly’

Article content

Former golf pro David MacMicken joined a long list of local impaired drivers who have killed innocent bystanders after getting behind the wheel and driving drunk.

That wasn’t lost on Superior Court Justice Michael Carnegie on Thursday when he sentenced MacMicken, 52, to the recommended 4 1/2 years in prison, when he rhymed off a dozen local cases over the last decade that have help shape tougher impaired driving sentences across the country, including the case of a woman who blew up homes in Old East Village “and somehow avoided causing death.”

Article content

Article content

But, the judge added, those cases should have sent a message.

“I view the particular local impact of this offending conduct to be particularly aggravating and particularly noticeable for offenders,” Carnegie said, and added to MacMicken’s “moral blameworthiness” in the death of pedestrian Richard McMahon, 39, on Feb. 8, 2022.

“This is an all-too familiar and tragic story in the city of London, in the province of Ontario, frankly all across our country. It repeats itself with regularity before these courts and anecdotally does not seen to abate,” Carnegie said.

“Lives are lost and families are forever changed because of the irresponsible choices made by persons like Mr. MacMicken.”

MacMicken, who had moved to London from the Niagara area a year before McMahon’s death to be a golf pro at the Oaks Golf and Country Club, was also dealt a 10-year driving prohibition that will start once he completes his custodial sentence.

He pleaded guilty earlier this month to driving with more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood causing death and failing to remain at the scene of a crash for the tragic death of McMahon who was struck by MacMicken’s SUV on Oxford Street while on his way home from his job as a short-order cook.

Article content

“Mr. MacMicken killed an innocent bystander who was simply skateboarding home,” the judge said. “He did so because he chose to drink and once drunk, drive on a major roadway in our community. And to somehow make matters worse, he cowardly fled the scene.”

McMahon, he said was “left to die at the side of the road.”

Carnegie reviewed the facts in detail. MacMicken was driving west on Oxford Street near Laurel Street at about 11 p.m. and struck McMahon before driving off. A civilian witness saw McMahon’s body roll off the hood of MacMicken’s Ford Escape.

She stopped, but MacMicken took off, eventually arriving home with his clothes covered in blood and telling his spouse that he hit someone and thought he might have killed him but no one saw what happened.

Manwhile, police, fire  and paramedics rushed to the scene and McMahon was taken to hospital. Two minutes after the ambulance left MacMicken’s wife arrived at the crime scene and told police her spouse was responsible.

MacMicken’s SUV was found in the parking area of his apartment building with blood on the crushed-in hood and a hole in the windshield that was the size of a soccer ball. There was blood smeared and dripping on the vehicle.

Article content

MacMicken was arrested at the apartment still wearing his bloody clothes and taken to police headquarters where he was charged. His blood alcohol readings taken hours after the incident showed levels of 134 and 122 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, both considered aggravating under the current impaired driving laws.

McMahon, who loved music, books, Star Trek, yoga, healthy eating, parkour and skateboarding, was pronounced dead at hospital of injuries consistent to someone who had been struck by a vehicle.

Since the crash, MacMicken has been addressing his alcoholism and has been sober for two years. He has participated in various types of counselling and offered a heartfelt apology to McMahon’s family at his last court appearance on March 12.

“He didn’t seek forgiveness because, frankly, that was a bridge too far,” Carnegie said.

A stack of support letters, including some from fellow alcoholics, was moving, Carnegie said. MacMicken has also lined up speaking engagements to tell his story to stop others from heading down his path.

He has lost his job and his golf pro accreditation, after years of work.

Article content

The 4 1/2 –year sentencing recommendation had been a joint submission from the Crown and the defence. The sentence could have been longer, Carnegie said, given that MacMicken “cowardly” fled the scene after hitting McMahon.

He gave credit to the civilian witness and to MacMicken’s spouse for coming forward.

The sentence had to send a message “because the public has grown tired of the carnage caused on our roadways by impaired drivers. They have witnessed the devastation of families forever changed in their aftermath,” Carnegie said.

“Mr. MacMicken is perfectly entitled to drink himself to death, but what he is not entitled to do is drive while under the influence and put us all at risk.”

Carnegie  said he believe MacMicken’s apology was genuine and added that “Mr. MacMicken has to live with the reality that his choices, his selfishness, his frailties that led to the loss of an innocent person’s life. That is a difficult burden for anyone to carry.”

To McMahon’s family, the judge said he understood that they were on a healing journey,  just like MacMicken.

“I hope you find some peace in the conclusion of these proceedings and healing as you go forward,” he said.

jsims@postmedia.com

Article content