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This article was published 28/5/2015 (1942 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Family and friends of a Winnipeg teen who was killed by a driver while walking down a highway are lashing out at a judge’s decision that cleared the driver of criminal wrongdoing.

Caley Vaughan, 29, was found not guilty this week of failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing the death of 18-year-old Brandon Flis in October 2012.

Provincial court Judge Robert Heinrichs accepted Vaughan’s explanation he didn’t realize he’d struck a person while driving on Lagimodiere Boulevard at the South Perimeter.

"Justice was not served," the victim’s mother, Maggie Bray, said Thursday.

"He had to have known. He wasn’t an animal. He was a great son."

She wants the Crown to appeal the verdict. The Crown has 30 days to make a decision.

"The verdict is making us suffer again. Mr. Vaughan is free to live his life as if nothing happened," Bray said.

"Our family is living a life sentence, missing our son and also mourning all the things he will never accomplish."

Vaughan never testified, but gave a statement to police that was submitted as evidence.

He claimed to have felt a "big bump" while driving but assumed he struck a small animal and continued on, despite admitting to being "nervous and panicky."

He turned himself in 10 hours later after his father told him a pedestrian had been hit.

That pedestrian was Flis, who had left a nearby house party and was walking home around 4 a.m.

In his decision, Heinrichs noted Flis was dressed in dark clothing. There was also evidence he was intoxicated and agitated following a fight with his girlfriend.

Vaughan was driving north on the highway. He had also been at a house party that night and admitted he drank alcohol.

An RCMP expert estimated Vaughan was driving the speed limit when he struck Flis, who flew up onto the windshield and ended up on the road. Flis suffered massive head trauma and died eight days later.

"Our Thanksgiving was ruined for life as we took our son off life-support and watched him struggle to take his last breaths," Bray said Thursday.

Adding to the family’s frustration is the fact Vaughan had no driver’s licence or auto insurance.

This, along with questions about his level of impairment that can never be answered, leaves them suspicious about his motives for not stopping.

"There’s not even a fine here for having an expired licence or no insurance," Bray said.

During the trial, the Crown suggested Vaughan didn’t stop at the scene because he may have been intoxicated.

Vaughan admitted to police he had consumed three beers over five hours. Others at the same party described him being "a bit tipsy" at one point, but not visibly impaired.

In his verdict, Heinrichs said the Crown had failed to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Vaughan did anything criminal.

"This was a tragedy. Brandon Flis was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But he was in a place where no driver would have been able to avoid hitting him," Heinrichs said. "(Vaughan) has offered up a plausible account of what he saw and thought."

Stephanie Page, a close family friend of the victim, said the verdict "doesn’t make sense at all."

"Mistaking a body hitting your windshield for a small rock or animal? Impossible," she said.

Page questioned why Vaughan and his passenger didn’t testify at the trial.

"There is something blatantly wrong with this whole thing."

Flis had dreams of becoming an RCMP officer, which his mother said is ironic given the way the justice system has let him down.

"Our house will never be the same. Mr. Vaughan gets to live his life a free man. I get to see my son’s urn every day and relive this every day," Bray said.

www.mikeoncrime.com