A quadriplegic man was spared jail Monday as a Newmarket judge handed down his sentence for the first-degree murder of York Regional Police Const. Garrett Styles.

Justice Alex Sosna decided to avoid a custodial sentence altogether and his ruling gave the accused, only identified as S.K. due to his age at the time of the slaying, a nine-year, community-supervision order, during which he can remain at his family’s Newmarket home.

Although the Crown was requesting that S.K. be placed in an open-custody residence in Milton for five years, the judge said he was not satisfied the facility could properly care for the 19-year-old’s significant medical needs.

“A custodial sentence will not make him more accountable,” he said, noting just how precarious S.K.’s medical condition is. “He’s a prisoner in his own body and is already serving a life sentence.”

After the verdict, a York Regional Police news release quoted Melissa Styles, Garrett’s wife, denouncing the sentence: “My children and I have been given a life sentence to have to live without Garrett, and we were not found guilty of anything. This sentence is a huge letdown.”

Garrett’s father Garry Styles, himself a former sergeant with the same force, added in the same release: “It appears to us that a police officer’s life means nothing in the eyes of justice. As a former police officer, I find the sentence imposed to be lacking and opening the door to further tragedies involving police officers just doing their sworn duty.”

The trial has been a contentious one from the beginning, not only because of the circumstances of the crash that led to Const. Styles’ death, but also the age of the offender and the condition S.K. was left in.

It was June 28, 2011, that both families’ lives were forever altered.

After organizing with acquaintances over social media to go out together that night, S.K., then 15, took his parent’s minivan and picked up three friends.

The four ended up joyriding around Newmarket, stopping at Tim Hortons, the Upper Canada Mall parking lot and other spots, usually smoking cigarettes before moving on.

Hours after originally taking the vehicle, while his parents slept, S.K. decided to drive home the only female passenger. On their way to her East Gwillimbury home at 4:30 a.m., the car was stopped doing almost 150 km/h — nearly 50 km/h over the limit.

Const. Styles approached the van and advised S.K. — who had been caught illegally driving the minivan by police before — that it would be impounded.

After initially giving a false name and address and then begging the officer to let him and his friends go, the car took off with Const. Styles across S.K.’s lap and the door wide open.

Some 300 metres later, the vehicle veered to the left, hit a ditch, flipped, rolled and landed on Const. Styles, crushing him.

In his final call to dispatchers, he expressed worry about the other youths in the vehicle before his death.

In the front seat was S.K., who was left a quadriplegic, with some movement in his arms, but little in his hands. Along with S.K.’s identity, the names of the other three youths then in the vehicle remained secret until now because they were youths at the time of the crime.

However that privacy may now shift after Justice Sosna further sentenced S.K. to speak at three events a year about the cause of his injuries, the results and the impact on those around him, to act as a deterrent.

When a jury found S.K. guilty of first-degree murder in June, there were emotional scenes including his mother bursting into tears, yelling and screaming in court. S.K.’s mother was not present at the Newmarket courthouse Monday as Sosna explained that a first-degree verdict was imposed not because of premeditated thought or malice, but because Const. Styles was an officer executing his duties at the time of his death.

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When the Crown and defence made their final submissions earlier this month, Melissa Styles told the court of the pain she and her two small children have faced without her husband in their lives.

“Garrett was my best friend, my partner in life and the father of my children. He was my first love. He had green eyes and a set of dimples that would melt your heart when he smiled,” said Styles’ widow. “Garrett was a kind and humble man with a dry sense of humour.”

About the sentence Justice Sosna said he took the view that S.K. had paid a plentiful price for his actions already.

“It’s been pressed upon him every day since the crash four years ago,” he said, explaining that while the crash “shattered and devastated” the Styles’ family, S.K.’s injuries would remain with him forever.

“By his own folly he was rendered a quadriplegic. That will continue for the rest of his life.”