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Jack Tobin’s sentencing hearing opens with statement from victim’s family

Former Newfoundland premier’s son guilty of impaired driving causing death

After pleading guilty in May to impaired driving causing death Jack Tobin, the 24-year-old son of former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin, will hear impact statements from the victim’s family at his sentencing hearing on Thursday. Alex Zolpis, 24, was killed during a “booze-filled Christmas celebration” in Ottawa on December 24, 2010, when he was pinned under a pick-up truck that Tobin was driving. “We are living every parent’s worst nightmare,” said Zolpis’s mother, Susan Morgan. “Young people do not take drinking and driving seriously, and this must change.” Tobin faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, while his lawyer, Norm Boxall, has suggested 18 to 30 months in prison and a five-year driving ban. No sentence is expected to be handed down on Thursday, though Tobin is expected to take the stand.

CBC News

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