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Immediately following the verdict, a wave of relief washed over Casey’s widow, LeeEllen Carroll, and his father, Gus, who sat quietly in the courtroom as they have for all 55 previous days of the long-running trial.

“We’ve been in court every single day of the trial and we’ve heard the evidence, we know the facts, we know the truth,” Carroll said outside the courthouse.

“We are relieved that justice is being done. The pain inflicted upon us and our families from the crash and the drawn out court case has left a huge impact on our family. It should not be experienced by others. I will never forget the look on my children’s faces when I told them what happened. I will never forget the pain in their eyes and in their hearts,” Carroll said.

Casey family

Natis showed little reaction after Ontario Court Justice Neil Kozloff took three hours to deliver his verdict, meticulously outlining the evidence of each of the more than two dozen witnesses who testified during the trial. In the end, he said he chose to rely on the eyewitness evidence that painted a picture of a heavily intoxicated and unsteady Natsis leaving the Crazy Horse bar in Kanata following two glasses of wine, backing her Ford Expedition into a parked car and then swerving all over the highway at speeds that at times approached 130 km/h. Kozloff said he accepted witness evidence that she nearly hit a concrete wall during the 24-minute drive that ended with her slamming head-on into Casey’s Dodge pickup.