A Sault Ste. Marie man who pleaded guilty to hit and run causing death was sentenced to 15-month conditional sentence.
Thomas Schell pleaded guilty to the charge, and received his sentence from Justice Bruce Pugsley in Sudbury court Oct. 30.
Schell was charged in the death of Rajendra Prasad with failing to stop at the scene of an accident causing death, obstructing a police officer and failing to comply.
He pleaded guilty to failure to stop at the scene causing death, which carries with it a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The other charges were withdrawn today after sentencing.
Schell will be under house arrest for the first six months, and under curfew (11 p.m. to 6 a.m.) for months 6-9. The remainder will be under the same curfew, and must include counselling. Schell has also been given a 3.5-year suspension of his drivers’ licence (which was already suspended while waiting for trial), a lifetime ban on weapons and he must submit his DNA to the national databank.
The Crown, represented by Mathieu Ansell, submitted a sentencing recommendation of nine months in a correctional facility. The Crown felt that the sentence should act as both a denunciation of the act, as well as to deter others from committing the same crime or repeating the same actions as Schell.
When Schell pleaded guilty, he entered an agreed statement of facts, which detailed the Feb. 1, 2022 incident.
Prasad had just finished a shift with Eastlink in the New Sudbury Centre and had taken a bus to the Paris Street/Walford Road area. She got off the bus, turned left onto Walford Road, and proceeded on the sidewalk on the south side of Walford Road toward her home on Ramseyview Court.
About 6:45 p.m., witnesses saw what has now been identified as Schell’s truck strike Prasad in the westbound lane of Walford Road, near the intersection of Walford Road and Ramseyview Court.
Schell was alone in the truck. He made no attempt to stop or provide assistance. In a preliminary hearing, the crown’s single witness, told the court that as witness to the hit and run they watched Schell momentarily slow, they yelled to Schell to stop, before Schell accelerated and drove off. It was after this eyewitness testified that Schell pleaded guilty to the single charge.
Prasad was taken by ambulance to Health Sciences North where she was pronounced dead. She came to Greater Sudbury from India to pursue her master’s degree in computer science at Laurentian University. She was two months away from graduating when she was killed.
Schell was in Sudbury as part of his job with CP Rail. He was scheduled to work seven consecutive days starting Feb. 1.
In his decision, Pugsley detailed Schell's choices up to the moment he was arrested.
“When he arrived, he parked unusually,” said Pugsley, “with his truck nose into the parking spot, contrary to practice and the direction of his employer.”
Schell continued to try to hide the evidence of what happened, said Pugsley. After his Feb. 1 shift, Schell was to complete six more. He called his boss on the day of his second shift to report that he could not come into work, as his father had a heart attack. Schell later texted his superior to ask for bereavement leave for the remaining shifts, telling his boss that his father had died.
“He did not suffer a heart attack and he did not die,” said Pugsley. “He still drives his son to work today.”
There were also pieces of a truck grill left at the scene on the day of the incident.
An anonymous source told Greater Sudbury Police about Schell’s parking choice — pointing nose in, possibly to hide damage — and after investigation by GSPS led to Schell, a search warrant was executed at his residence on Feb. 8.
Schell was hiding in the attic. He was brought downstairs, and officers found more pieces of the truck grill in the upstairs bedroom. They matched it to the pieces found at the scene, and arrested Schell.
They also seized Schell’s truck, which had front-end damage to the hood area on the front passenger side. There was also evidence Schell had painted parts of the vehicle’s front end following the collision, including painting over the fog lights, which were visible in the surveillance video taken of the incident.
On Oct. 30 during his sentencing hearing, Schell’s lawyer, Len Walker, asked that the evening curfew include exceptions for employment, which it does, and that Schell’s file be transferred to Sault Ste. Marie so that it is closer to Schell’s residence.
Pugsley noted in his decision that conditional sentencing fit because it met four criteria considered. These are: that the offense he will be convicted of has no minimum; the sentence would impose less that two years in jail (the Crown submitted that Schell spend nine months in jail); that the safety of the community would not be endangered — Pugsley noted Schell had a positive pre-sentence report detailing his remorse, and; that the sentence imposed is “consistent with the fundamental purpose of sentencing,” which is to denounce the action as wrong, and to deter others from committing the same offense.
After he offered sentencing, Pugsley told the court what might have happened had Schell stayed with Prasad that night, and called an ambulance.
“This issue is made more tragic by the fact that if he stopped and remained at the scene, he may well have faced no charge at all," he said.
He noted that Prasad was walking in dark clothes on a dark February night, “and the collision might have been found to be a tragic accident.”
Instead, Pugsley said that when Schell left the scene, and decided to “lie, cover up and conceal,” each action “walked a path that led him to being in court today.”
Pugsley then spoke to Schell directly, telling him if the conditions of his sentence were breached, he would spend the remainder of his time in jail.
“The kind with the steel doors,” said Pugsley.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com
