A Victoria man has lost his appeal of a manslaughter charge for pushing a woman onto the road at a downtown intersection in 2009, where she was crushed beneath a bus.
Christopher Michael Groves, 25, was sentenced in December 2011 to a year in prison, as well as two years probation and 250 hours of community service with homeless causes. A B.C. Supreme Court jury found that Ariana May Simpson, a 20-year-old known to Victoria’s street community, fell under the wheels of the bus at the corner of Quadra Street and Pandora Avenue after a push from Groves.
Groves has been on bail since shortly after his sentence was handed down. Defence lawyer Robert Claus filed an appeal in January 2012 that asked for the conviction to be quashed and an acquittal entered, or for a new trial to be ordered.
The appeal suggested B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Fisher made errors that included allowing an out-of-court video statement by a witness, but the denial of the appeal concluded that the verdict “was not unreasonable.”
The denial ruling acknowledged “credibility concerns” with a number of witnesses whose testimony bolstered the Crown’s case, but said it was a matter for the jury.
“It was for the jury to assess the credibility of witnesses having regard to the evidence as a whole,” the document said.
With the appeal of the conviction denied, the defence will now appeal the sentence that Groves was given and apply for further bail.
The incident that led to Simpson’s death began with Groves and friend George Westwood going for drinks on Feb. 12, 2009. After getting very drunk, Westwood decided to walk to Quadra and Pandora to buy cocaine and was accompanied by an uneasy Groves.
Westwood began to argue with street people in the area and removed his shirt to fight, court heard, while Groves began yelling derogatory terms like “junkies” and “crackheads” to those around him and urged his friend to leave.
Court heard that Simpson walked up to Groves and threw a straw at him, and the push followed. Groves testified that he was simply using his right arm to clear the crowd that had formed.
Fisher said the push was not meant to be deadly, but that punishment was needed as a deterrent for such a careless act near traffic.
During the trial, Simpson’s family acknowledged Ariana spent a lot of her time on the streets, but said she had a home she could go to. At the time, her mother, Cindy, said the sentence was fair.
“It is, actually, exactly what I wanted,” she said.
“I wanted him to spend some time in jail and I definitely wanted some community service, hopefully with the people he so harshly judged. I think it will do him some good to get some perspective.”
