Jeremy Lutter’s life was forever changed in Vernon on the morning of April 20, 2008 and, until Monday, he had never the seen the person who altered his life.

Lutter, 29, was in the gallery in Supreme Court chambers at the Vernon Court House Monday, watching Judge Mark Takahashi sentence Dallas Parker Smithson of Vernon to 15 months in jail for impaired driving causing death, and 12 months – to be served concurrently – for impaired driving causing bodily harm.

Lutter, of Victoria, was the backseat passenger in a Vernon Taxi cab, driven by Howard Collins, that was heading northbound on 43rd Avenue sometime between 2 and 3 a.m., towards the home Lutter was staying at. As the cab went through the intersection at 20th Street, a northbound SUV driven by Smithson, then 18, went through the stop sign at 20th, t-boning the cab.

Collins was killed.

Lutter, who had been in the Okanagan to attend the Okanagan Film Festival Awards later that April night in Kelowna, (he would win the award he was nominated for), suffered a permanently damaged left hand and some neurological injuries. He is unable to work in the film industry as a result of the crash and has moved back in with his parents.

“This accident has been absolutely huge in my life, had a huge impact, which I‘m still recovering from, I wouldn’t have missed it (sentencing) for the world,” said Lutter following Takahashi’s ruling, which left him with mixed feelings. “I had never seen the accused before, and I was very interested to come up and put a face to the name. I was very surprised at how young he looked.

“In one regard, I’ve been through a lot of pain and suffering, my hand got wrecked and a lot of other things that are ongoing. On the other hand, he just looked so young. I understand where the judge is coming from. It’s a hard thing to try and deter people from drinking and driving.”

Proceedings were originally slated for Courtroom 101, one of the smaller Provincial Court rooms at the Vernon Court House, but, because of an overflow crowd – two-thirds of the people in attendance were family members or friends of Smithson – the matter was moved to Supreme Court chambers.

Crown counsel Jonathan Oliphant and defence lawyer Grant Gray presented their cases over two hours – Oliphant was seeking a prison sentence in the range of 18-to-24-months, Gray asked for a sentence of nine-to-12-months.

Oliphant included riveting victim impact statements from Collins’ former wife, Tanny, and his two young adult children, Andrew and Michelle.

In his letter, Andrew had stated that “in this type of crime, there are no winners on either side,” but felt he suffered a greater loss with the death of his father.

Afterwards, Collins said he was satisfied with Takahashi’s ruling.

“It was tough on his behalf where there’s somebody so young, there’s a death and injury involved, I thought it was fair,” said Collins. “I feel bad for him (Smithson). He’s very young, he’s gotta go to jail for awhile and that’s really unfortunate for him, but he seemed ready to take on his responsibilities for what happened.

“I really do think he was remorseful. You could see it in his face, he was sad and mellow about the whole thing. You could tell he definitely wasn’t looking forward to going away.”

Oliphant also included an apology from an extremely remorseful Smithson, now 20, who was wearing a suit and could be seen in the prisoner’s dock holding his head in his hands, crying and biting his lip throughout the proceedings.

In his apology to the families of Collins and Lutter, Smithson called the accident “the worst mistake of his life.”

“I don’t know how to start this letter. Your family doesn’t deserve the pain I have put you through,” said Oliphant, who read the letter. “I understand the man has kids around the same age as me, and if it were me, I would feel hatred for the person who took my father away from me.

“I took your father away and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. I wish I could take back that night. It’s been tearing me up inside. There’s not a thing I wouldn’t do to take it back. It was the worst mistake of my life. I apologize sincerely from the bottom of my heart.”

In passing sentence, Takahashi considered a number of factors, including what he termed the eloquent letters written by Collins’ family, as well as the fact Smithson had no previous criminal record, that numerous letters of support for Smithson had been written by a variety of people and that he showed genuine regret for his actions.

“The remorse expressed by Mr. Smithson is compelling, but no apology can bring back Mr. Collins or make things better for Mr. Lutter, no matter how heartfelt the apology is,” said Takahashi.

Smithson had been at a house party on the evening of the accident, arriving with an ex-girlfriend, and after telling the party host he planned to sleep in his car, he became upset when the friend left the party with somebody else. That is when he decided to drive home.

Party guests and the host confirmed Smithson had been drinking. His blood-alcohol level was nearly two times the legal limit.

Takahashi also imposed a five-year driving probhibition on Smithson, and placed him on one year’s probation following the conclusion of his prison term.