Trial wraps in fatal Albany Y impaired driving case; P.E.I. judge to rule at later date | CBC News
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Thommachen Thomas Panackal’s trial in P.E.I. Supreme Court wrapped up in Slemon Park on Thursday, as the Crown rested its case and the defence decided not to call any witnesses or introduce its own evidence.
He’s facing five charges in total, including two counts of impaired driving causing death, two counts of driving with over 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood causing death, and one count of driving with a suspended licence.
The court spent three and a half days hearing from the Crown’s 11 witnesses, including RCMP officers, Islanders who came across the crash scene in the early morning hours of Aug. 2, 2024, Health P.E.I. staff who would have handled Panackal’s blood in hospital, and the prosecutor’s key witness: Albin Sibi.
Sibi is the only other survivor of the crash at the Albany Y intersection that killed Dona Shaji, 23, and Jugal Mehta, 24.
Sibi’s account of events, which showed some inconsistencies over time, is the only evidence placing Panackal, 27, in the driver’s seat when the car left the road going 126 km/h on an exit ramp.
Panackal would have been breaking the law by driving for two reasons: he had an impaired driving conviction from four months prior that resulted in a license suspension, and the blood taken from him when he was at the hospital as a trauma patient showed his blood-alcohol level was just shy of three times the legal limit.
Sibi testified that Mehta was driving the car when the friends left Charlottetown, but Panackal switched into the driver’s seat after a stop about halfway through their travels.
An RCMP collision reconstructionist told the court he could not determine whether the seatbelts in the totalled Toyota Corolla had been used. Sibi said he was wearing his in the passenger’s seat and was still inside the car when it stopped rolling after travelling across three lanes of traffic.
First responders and bystanders who came upon the scene testified that Shaji, Mehta and Panackal were all lying on the ground near the car. The reconstructionist could not determine if they had been thrown from the vehicle, but several windows and the windshield were missing.
Shaji died at the scene, while Mehta was airlifted to Halifax and died days later. Panackal was also in hospitals for months, having suffered a traumatic brain injury that the court heard impacted his memory of the crash.
The court did not hear from Panackal during the trial.
The defence picked at more than a dozen inconsistencies across Albin Sibi’s version of events for the morning of Aug. 2, 2024. Along with Thommachen Thomas Panackal — who’s on trial facing five charges — Sibi is the only other survivor of a crash that day that killed two other people in the vehicle. CBC’s Nicola MacLeod reports.
The Crown and defence will now make their written submissions to the judge arguing why they think Panackal is or isn’t guilty.
The onus is on the Crown to have proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Panackal’s lawyer told the judge his arguments will be mostly based on his cross examination of Sibi, including a prior moment in one of his police interviews where Sibi wavered on who was driving the car, saying “I hope that it’s Thomas but I’m not 100 per cent sure.”
The judge will hold off on making a decision until a later date.