MANDEL: Heartbroken mom tells drunk driver to 'remember the damage you've done'
· Toronto Sun
He stole three of her four children.
The teen knew better. He’d seen all the videos about the dangers of drunk driving. He knew he probably shouldn’t get behind the wheel that night.
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Yet he did it anyway.
And because of 19-year-old Ethan Lehuillier’s stupid and selfish decision to drive at high speed on May 18, 2025 , with double the legal limit of alcohol in his system, three of Jade Galve’s kids are dead and their family is shattered beyond repair.
Ramone Lavina 15, brother Jace, 13 and sister Mya, 6, died of head blunt force trauma in the horrific crash as they sat in a van at a red light on their way home from Victoria Day fireworks.
Galve, 35, her 10-year-old son Avery, and her partner Akesh Paladugu, 40, were all injured and spent five days in hospital.
Friends and relatives – many wearing T-shirts with the siblings’ photo – filled the courtroom and two overflow rooms for Lehuillier’s sentencing hearing Thursday. In December, the Georgetown driver, now 20, pleaded guilty to three counts of impaired driving causing death and three of impaired driving causing bodily harm.
The children’s mom delivered the first of many victim impact statements.
“We embraced each other as we watched the fireworks light up the sky, not knowing it was the last time,” Galve told the court, her voice breaking. “We were on our way home when our lives changed forever because of one selfish decision.”
Her only daughter Mya was her social butterfly, a lover of hairstyles and outfits, her partner in crime who could light up the room with her jokes and impressions.
Jace, smart and compassionate, would use his allowance to buy her favourite desserts and thank her for working so hard.
Her relationship with her oldest, Ramone, had grown stronger and she can still see his excited face when she surprised him by working overtime so she could reserve a spot for him to join a school trip to Switzerland.
“It has been so hard to cope with everything and the loss is unbearable,” she wept. “I can remember every single detail, especially holding my lifeless daughter in my arms, crying out for help.
“It breaks my heart every time I ask myself, ‘Why them and not me?’ They deserved to live a long and happy life. Now their lives have been cut short and it’s not fair. Life isn’t fair. We will never understand why.”
Yet she forces herself to go on for 11-year-old Avery, her sole surviving child who struggles to cope with the loss of all his siblings.
According to the agreed statement, the family was stopped at a red light at Renforth Dr. when Lehuillier, who had left his family’s trailer in Flamborough for Toronto, exited Hwy 401 at a high rate of speed, ran a red light, struck the median and slammed into the driver’s side of Paladugu’s vehicle.
Jace and Mya died instantly; Ramone was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Lehouillier was travelling 168 km/h just five seconds before the collision and 95 km/h at a tenth of a second before impact. That speed would be unmanageable by most drivers but especially by someone who had a blood alcohol level of 185 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood – more than double the legal limit.
Crown attorney Jay Spare compared the impact of the crash to a bomb going off – killing the first three victims directly and then injuring countless others in a ripple effect of devastation.
He urged Justice Kim Crosbie to sentence Lehuillier to eight to 10 years in prison as well as impose a 20-year driving ban as a deterrent to others.
“People who drive while impaired are gambling with people’s lives,” Crosbie said.
Defence lawyer Christopher Avery said the young dishwasher is an alcoholic and intellectually disabled. He told the judge Lehuillier is so remorseful that he refused to have a bail hearing and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
He argued the first offender should be sentenced to seven years less credit for pre-trial custody, adding he’s been in virtual segregation because of death threats.
Throughout the reading of the heart breaking victim impact statements, Lehuillier had his head bowed and often wiped away tears. In words barely audible, he later told the family he was sorry and “so ashamed” and vowed to be a voice against impaired driving to spare other innocent families the trauma they’re suffering.
We can only hope the final searing words of the children’s mother echo for him forever.
“Drinking and driving should stop,” Galve said through her tears. “No one deserved this, especially my children. They deserved to live. Every decision should be thought out or else you’ll have to live with the guilt and the consequences for the rest of your life.
“I hope you remember the damage you’ve done.”
The judge is expected to deliver her sentence in the spring.