Tensions peaked in a Penticton courtroom Tuesday as the family of 18-year-old Marco Corbin faced the man who killed him after a boating collision nearly four years ago on Osoyoos Lake.
The family yelled from the courtroom gallery as Ryan William Symington, 30, attempted to apologize, speaking for the first time towards the end of the hearing.
“Sorry to the family,” Symington said, as members of the Corbin family interjected before he could say more.
The apology was too little and too late for the Corbin family members in the gallery, who showed their non-acceptance of the apology verbally.
“It’s coming back to you. You’re a (expletive) murderer,” Corbin’s brother said before he and other family members were escorted out of the courtroom by the sheriff and the hearing was stood down briefly.
Symington was sentenced to 27 months in jail and a five year driving prohibition through a joint submission from the Crown and the defence. Symington pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving causing death and one count of failure to stop at an accident causing bodily harm.
The Mission, B.C. teen was vacationing in the Okanagan on Aug. 16, 2011 when the incident took place. Marco was being towed behind a boat on a tube when he was struck by another boat. He was rushed back to shore where paramedics and bystanders tried in vain to revive him.
Criminal charges were not laid on Symington until three years after the fact. Court documents obtained by the Western News in 2012 suggested alcohol, a lack of proper navigation lights and non-compliance with boating regulations on the part of both operators may have been factors in the crash.
The documents, filed by RCMP with their applications to obtain search warrants, include an information to obtain. This is a sworn statement by a police officer which spells out the grounds on which a warrant should be granted by the court. Witness statements given to police and included in the ITO are not sworn and therefore not considered as reliable as court testimony.
In the documents, Const. Joseph Bayda wrote that breath samples taken showed Symington’s blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit. Bayda also wrote that Symington told him he did not see the tube behind the boat.
In the ITO, the driver of the boat towing Corbin said his boat only had its front navigation lights and he knew he should have had a spotter but didn’t. Marco’s driver said the other boat did not have any lights visible. A breathlyzer test a few hours after the incident detected no alcohol in the driver towing Marco, said the report written by the Const. Bayda.
The Corbin family aired the true impact of the devastation from losing their son, brother and nephew in open court prior to the sentencing.
Marco’s mother, father, uncle and brother spoke about the effects of his death on the family while Symington looked down and said nothing.
“As I drove in here yesterday morning, I felt my insides start to break into pieces. My legs turned to rubber and my knees were weak, I felt like I had a fever and was going to be sick,” Elena Di Giovanni, Marco’s mother, told the court.
“After this day is over, I never want to come back here again.”
Marco’s brother, Robert Corbin, told the court how he first found out his brother had died by being startled awake in the middle of the night by his mother’s screams.
The dead teen’s father, Bob, explained how his world came to a dramatic end on Aug. 16, 2011.
“It was such a seismic body blow, that I went from being a totally fulfilled father and husband to, without a thought, running to my bathroom where I found a bunch of medication that my elderly mother had left, looked in the mirror and said I’m out of here. No thought, no hesitation,” he said.
Empting the bottles into his mouth, Bob said he could not imaging living without his son. He told the court he fell to the floor and were there not RCMP officers there to revive him he would have died. He fell into coma and awoke in the hospital days later.
“I have never had one second since that hasn’t been filled with the pain and the poison of his loss.”
The dead teen’s father said he had never seen the face of the man who killed his son until Tuesday.
“I wanted to look at the person who had ruined my life and devastated my family … I never heard a word of apology or acknowledgement until he tried in the courtroom,” Bob said outside the courthouse after the sentencing. “A very weak effort of insincere remorse four years after the fact to the family.”
The father said Marco’s reputation went beyond his notable success with school, music and the Corbin Brothers Band formed with his siblings.
“The fact that the thousands of people who felt compelled to get tattoos of his name across their heart, to name their children after him, his impact is not normal for that of an 18 year old, to have that kind of impact in his community. Society has lost somebody great who was going to contribute to better things,” Bob said.
Neither of Marco’s parents agreed with the sentenced imposed by Judge Gail Sinclair.
“This person should never be allowed to drive again because someone is going to be killed,” Di Giovanni said.
During sentencing Judge Sinclair said the Corbin family would not be happy with the verdict.
“Nothing this court does will bring Marco Corbin back. It is even more tragic that when Marco died, his family died emotionally with him,” Sinclair said. “The sentence I know will be totally unacceptable to Mr. Corbin’s family. However, I am bound by precedent.”
Symington’s defence, Calgary lawyer Balfour Der, noted the crime was not intentional. Der called the incident a “crime of inadvertence, a crime of negligence,” and said “it’s an absence of care.”
“We cannot here understand the depths of this young man’s family’s loss. We cannot possibly understand it, even those of us who are parents and young men ourselves, we cannot understand how we would feel or what this poor family is going through,” Der said. “There’s nothing we can do here, now that can bring him back and our purpose here is not to even the score.”
Symington’s wife sat alone and was in tears, saying “I love you” as her husband was handcuffed.
