Jennifer Neville-Lake still wakes up at 5 a.m. every day, staring from her bed at the pictures of her three children, hoping she’ll hear their voices.

There was a time she and husband Edward Lake would have gotten up to play with Daniel, 9, Harrison, 5, and Milly, 2, to take them to the park, help them with their school work.

Now, their lives revolve around just a few places: visiting the kids’ graves, doctor’s appointments, seeing Neville-Lake’s injured mother and grandmother, and coming to court.

On Wednesday, the Brampton couple found out that soon they’ll likelystrike one painful location off their list.

Lawyers for Marco Muzzo said in Newmarket court that he intends to plead guilty on Feb. 4 to some of the charges stemming from the Sept. 27 collision in Vaughan that took the Neville-Lake children away from their adoring parents and killed their 65-year-old grandfather, Gary Neville.

Neville-Lake’s mother and grandmother were also seriously injured in the crash.

“Guilty just means I can stay home and not move for days on end,” Neville-Lake told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “Maybe that’s probably not good for you, but we need that. We need that time to cry, we need that time to grieve.”

Muzzo faces charges including impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death, and impaired driving causing bodily harm.

His lawyer, Brian Greenspan, would not say to which charges his client will plead guilty. Some of the offences carry a maximum of life in prison.

“Mr. Muzzo has always accepted full responsibility for his actions and for his conduct, and has, from the first day of our meeting, expressed his wish that this matter proceed as expeditiously as possible to this resolution,” Greenspan told reporters.

He made it clear that Muzzo was not pleading guilty as part of a plea deal, meaning that no sentence was worked out between the Crown and defence in exchange for Muzzo’s plea. He did say Muzzo could get about six months of credit for time already served in custody when he is sentenced.

Timeline of events

Greenspan said he and the Crown will submit their own recommendations at a sentencing hearing in late February following the plea to Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst, who will decide on the penalty.

Pleading guilty at an early stage can, however, reduce a person’s sentence, said criminal defence lawyer Daniel Brown, who is not involved in the case.

“It spares the victims’ families and court system from a lengthy trial that could last several years and is considered an expression of remorse on the part of the accused,” he said.

The case has attracted widespread attention since the very beginning, due in part to the ages of the victims and because of Muzzo’s wealthy background.

His family owns the construction company Marel Contractors and condominium builder Pemberton Group and is worth nearly $1.8 billion, according to Canadian Business magazine.

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Wednesday was the first time Muzzo appeared in person in court since October. He has appeared regularly via video from jail for brief appearances, where his lawyers would always request an adjournment, saying they were still reviewing disclosure from the Crown.

In that time span, the Neville-Lake family has insisted on celebrating wedding anniversaries and birthdays for their deceased loved ones. In fact, Muzzo’s expected guilty plea is to come one day after Daniel would have turned 10.

“We are very grateful that we will not be here (in court) to celebrate Daniel’s life,” Neville-Lake said.

Muzzo’s family, including his mother and fiancée, were in attendance for his latest appearance. Appearing thinner than his social-media photos and dressed in a dark blazer with no tie, Muzzo looked serious and glanced briefly at his family in the front row before sitting down in the prisoner’s box directly in front of his mother.

The Muzzo family was quickly ushered in and out of the courtroom, and did not speak to media.

Greenspan said his client will be making a statement in court on Feb. 4.

Neville-Lake said she has no “magic number” in terms of her ideal sentence for Muzzo. But she said that she and her husband have already been serving life sentences since the deaths of their children.

“There’s no sentence that he can ever do that is going to repay what he took from us,” she said, holding back tears. “To start with, he has one life. I’m missing my three children and my father. That’s four.”

She said she refuses to turn to hate when thinking about the crash, because hate is not what she taught her children, and not what her father taught her.

“We can never repair, but maybe we can start to learn how to carry our broken hearts,” she said.

Muzzo has been fined in the past for several non-criminal provincial offences according to the Ministry of the Attorney General, including being intoxicated in public in Richmond Hill in 2012, and for speeding in Newmarket in 2013.

Brown, the criminal defence lawyer, said he believes the offences would have very little impact on how much prison time Muzzo will face given the other aspects of the case, but said it could impact the length of time Muzzo will be prohibited from driving.

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