Hit-and-run driver who left teen with life-altering injuries sentenced to 4½ years in prison

The man convicted of hitting a London, Ont., teenager with his car in 2019 and fleeing the scene of the crash has been sentenced to 4½ years in prison for what the sentencing judge called his "cruel and cowardly" crimes.

Jesse Bleck was convicted in August of failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing bodily harm, and driving while prohibited in the July 21, 2019, collision that left Tristan Roby, then 18, with life-altering injuries, including traumatic brain damage.

In delivering her sentence on Tuesday, Superior Court Justice Kelly Tranquilli pointed to Bleck's history of ignoring the conditions of his court-ordered probation and his "cruel and cowardly" act of leaving Roby to die by the side of the road that night.

"This has left Tristan Roby with extensive and catastrophic injuries that have changed his life and that of his family," said Tranquilli. Roby had planned to study entomology at Lakehead University, but will now require constant care for the rest of his life. 

Tranquilli's sentence includes a 10-year driving ban for Bleck.

Roby, who was in the courtroom with his mother Abby for the sentencing, had been riding his bike with a friend along Exeter Road the night he was struck. 

The impact of the crash threw Roby more than 10 metres and left him with injuries including a shearing of the brain, a broken jaw, a collapsed lung and a compound left leg fracture, according to his mother. The injuries left Roby in a wheelchair, and have led to seizures and a "Parkinson-like" disorder.

Bleck had four prior Highway Traffic Act convictions between 2014 and 2016 for driving while his licence was suspended and a conviction for operating a motor vehicle without insurance in 2016.

His criminal record also has a conviction in 2017 for refusing to provide a breath or blood sample, which led to a one-year driving ban. In 2018, he was convicted of failing to comply with a condition.

After the collision that injured Roby, Bleck was arrested in 2021 for driving while prohibited and in 2022 was in breach of his release condition by being outside of his residence while wearing an ankle monitor

For the collision that injured Roby, Bleck was arrested and charged six months after the hit and run and was found guilty on Aug. 16, 2023, by a jury, which rejected the defence argument that he wasn't the one driving.

The sentence is just shy of the five years in prison the Crown requested. With credit for the time he has already spent in jail, Bleck will serve three years and nine months in prison.