A Toronto man accused of beating a man and then running him over with an SUV pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter.
Agustin Alexander Caruso, now 25, was charged with second-degree murder in the 2009 death of Christopher Skinner, 27.
Justice John McMahon sentenced Caruso to eight-and-a-half years in prison. After credit for time served, Caruso has six years, two months and 15 days left to serve.
Caruso was also given a 10-year driving prohibition and was placed under a lifetime firearm prohibition.
"In a few senseless minutes on October 18, 2009, one young man lost his life, another young man is about to go to a penitentiary and several families have had their lives that they knew devastated forever," McMahon said Monday afternoon in handing down his sentence. "I'm sure there is not a person in this courtroom today who does not wish we could go back and redo the events of October 18, 2009. Unfortunately, we cannot."
By pleading guilty to manslaughter, Caruso forfeited his right to a trial and admitted to several facts in the case.
It was the early morning hours of Oct. 18, 2009. Skinner was making his way home from his sister's birthday party in downtown Toronto.
According to an agreed statement of facts read out in court Monday, Caruso and his friends had spent the night at a Peter St. nightclub, drinking vodka and snorting cocaine.
Caruso was driving east on Adelaide St. when he came to a stop light at Victoria St.
Skinner, who was drunk, had apparently been trying to hail a cab. Skinner appeared at Caruso's passenger-side window and asked for a ride.
"When he was told, 'No,' the victim banged on the passenger side window with his fist, which caused the reaction of the male occupants exiting the vehicle and beating the victim," Crown attorney Ann Morgan read from the agreed statement.
"He (Caruso) decided to get out of the car to show Christopher a lesson," Morgan later said in her sentencing arguments. "Mr. Skinner had no chance for flight or to be out of harm's way once he was down."
Caruso and his friends beat Skinner to the ground. Once Skinner was on the ground, the beating continued, court heard.
"The beating was unprovoked and Mr. Skinner did not fight back. He fell to the ground and he was incapacitated by the punches and kicks and he did not get up again. He was incapacitated on the road," Morgan said.
Caruso and his friends got back in the SUV, at which time Caruso steered the vehicle toward Skinner and ran over him with the front and back wheels.
Skinner was later pronounced dead in hospital.
Year after year, Skinner's family and Toronto Police Homicide Det. Sgt. Stacy Gallant made appeals to the public for information. Tips flooded in, but none of them was useful for the investigation.
It was not until February 2013 that police got the tip they needed.
One of the men who had been in the vehicle with Caruso that night had told his girlfriend what happened, court heard. When he was arrested for a domestic assault in British Columbia, his girlfriend told the RCMP officer what she knew about Skinner's death.
Gallant and his team in Toronto launched a wiretap investigation, targeting Caruso and others believed to have been involved in the homicide.
Court heard that Caruso was heard talking about getting rid of phone records and text messages, which, unbeknownst to him, had long since disappeared. Caruso also spoke of wanting to flee Toronto to avoid apprehension.
It was November 2013, one month after the four-year anniversary of Skinner's death, that Caruso was arrested.
Several victim impact statements were delivered in court Monday morning.
Skinner's mother, Ellen Skinner, spoke of the "what-ifs" since Skinner's homicide.
"What kind of family man would he have been? What kind of uncle would he have been to his unborn nephew? What kind of son would he be towards me in my old age?" she said. "I will never know. I will never feel his love towards me again."
Skinner's father, a defence lawyer, spoke of his struggles with depression and the impact his son's homicide had on his relationships.
"Needless to say, the loss of a child is the most horrendous experience in a parent's life. The events of October 18, 2009 changed my life completely and profoundly. There is not an hour that passes where memories of christopher do not flood into my mind," Warren Skinner said.
"I am, or try to be, a compassionate person. I do not have any ill will for Mr. Caruso. He will pay for his bad judgment and will think about the decisions he made on October 18, 2009 for the rest of his life. He will have to live with himself and with the trauma he has caused his family. He did not destroy one family. He destroyed many families, including his own," he said.
In regards to Caruso's guilty plea, Warren Skinner said: "I give him credit for doing so, but only wish he would have done so October 19, 2009 and not almost six years later."
Caruso wiped away tears.
Skinner's sister, Taryn, who since his death has graduated from university, gotten married and become a teacher, is expecting her first child in January.
"I remember my father falling to his knees as the detective shared the worst news of his life to him. I remember my mother throwing a vase across our family room as she temporarily lost the ability to understand her anger and emotions," Taryn Skinner said in her victim impact statement. "Christopher was my best friend, someone who understood me without even hearing me speak. A brother that would do anything for his younger sister to protect her and make her happy."
Speaking of the hole left in the lives of her brother's loved ones, she said: "Yes, we continue our lives. But we still feel that hole. And we still get lost in that hole from time to time."
Echoing the sentiments of many of Skinner's loved ones, Taryn Skinner added, "There's no answer to the question, 'Why?' I wouldn't wish the pain my family has felt on anyone. What I would wish is that for a split second before the crime was committed, the offender could see how the lives of so many would change as the decision was so senselessly made to murder my brother — how such a small and quick decision shook the lives of my family forever, leaving behind a permanent hole."
Skinner's fiancé, Ryan Cooke, submitted a written victim impact statement to court, which was heavily redacted before being made public.
"I wish you could have felt my pain when the police came to my house and told me," Cooke wrote to Caruso. "I wish you could feel the pain that Taryn, Ellen and Warren felt when the police went to their house to tell them. I wish you could feel the pain, 100 times over, this pain is mostly like death itself. You killed more than one person, you killed a piece of each (of) us who love him. So MANY people loved him. You are never, ever forgiven for this."
Several of Caruso's family members, including his tearful mother, were in court for the guilty plea Monday.
"I think what is evident this morning is that there is a great deal of suffering on both sides of this courtroom this morning," defence lawyer Marie Henein said.
"He was all of 19 years old at the time of this offence," she said. "This is not who Agustin is now...This is a period in his life that was a very bad period."
In asking for an eight-and-a-half-year sentence, Henein said, "He will re-enter this community having lost his 20s, really. And that is a significant impact."
Asked if he would like to address the courtroom, Caruso stood to speak, reading tearfully from a prepared statement.
"With this plea, I do take full responsibility for my actions and conduct on the night in question in which I caused the death of a young man who did absolutely nothing wrong," Caruso said.
Describing his actions on the night of Skinner's death as "reckless," Caruso said he was "a young man with no sense of direction and influenced by drugs."
"For many years, I thought about coming forward about this night. For many years, I denied the relief and understanding for the Skinner family," Caruso said.
In finishing his statement, Caruso turned to Skinner's family and said, "I am so sorry."
As McMahon delivered his sentenced, he had words for "the other five cowards" who were in Caruso's SUV the night of Skinner's death.
"Not one of the six individuals had the moral decency to come forward and do the right thing. Even the two women who did not participate in the beating or the driving elected not to do the right thing. They remained silent and protected the four individuals, including Mr. Caruso," McMahon said.
Of the victim, McMahon said: "Christopher Skinner from all accounts was a wonderful young man who had his entire life ahead of him. He was engaged to be married with hopes of becoming a lawyer. A promising young life snuffed out in a senseless act."
