Driver sentenced to 9 years for 2020 crash that killed 3

Oscar Benjumea, 27, pleaded guilty in May to three counts of dangerous driving causing death in the July 3, 2020 crash, as well as to a fourth count of failing to stop at an accident involving death.

The Ontario man who drove his sportscar into a south Edmonton Starbucks, killing all three of his passengers, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday.

Oscar Benjumea, 27, pleaded guilty in May to three counts of dangerous driving causing death in the July 3, 2020 crash, as well as to a fourth count of failing to stop at an accident involving death.

Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Peter Michalyshyn sentenced Benjumea to 7 1/2 years for the deaths as well as a further 18 months, to be served consecutively, for leaving the scene of the collision.

“Mr. Benjumea’s case includes three deaths and dangerousness that approaches the most serious imaginable and accordingly attracts the highest level of moral blameworthiness,” he ruled.

Michalyshyn cited how Benjumea was nine months into a year-long driving ban at the time of the crash, as well as his consumption of alcohol prior to driving as aggravating factors in sentencing.

He also rejected Benjumea’s assertion that a head injury sustained in the crash prevented him from fully understanding what he had done.

“His post-offence conduct speaks to his guilty mind,” Michalyshyn ruled. “He was well aware of the calamity he caused yet he acted in furtherance of his own self-interest.”