Sabastian Prosa found guilty of impaired driving causing death in 2012 crash

Sabastian Prosa, who was driving an SUV the wrong way on a highway when it struck a van with a family inside nearly three years ago, has been found guilty of 12 charges including impaired driving causing death.

The crash left Jayantha Wijeratne, 49, and his 16-year-old daughter, Eleesha, dead. Antonette Wijeratne, the wife and mother of the deceased, survived the crash but spent months in hospital recovering from her injuries.

Prosa’s blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit, according to an agreed statement of facts entered in court.

But Prosa has testified that he doesn’t remember the event and that he believes someone had slipped a drug in his drink at a nightclub before the crash.

The judge in the case, Justice Glenn Hainey, said Prosa’s testimony was both not credible and troubling. He said the fact that Prosa couldn’t remember anything from the night in question even before Prosa claimed to have been drugged raised serious questions about his testimony.

Hainey characterized Prosa as having a “selective memory” and said that he “tailored his evidence to support his defence.”