A York Regional Police officer who killed a pedestrian while speeding is not guilty of dangerous driving causing death, a jury has found after deliberating for seven hours.

Det.-Const. Remo Romano, 44, was part of a surveillance team tracking a van when he hit 18-year-old Carla Abogado as she jaywalked across St. Clair Ave. E. at around 8 p.m. on Feb. 12, 2014.

The police officer of 13 years was driving an unmarked pickup truck at 115 km/h — almost twice the 60 km/h speed limit — at the time, the Crown stated.

Abogado had just gotten off a bus and was crossing near the Warden Ave. intersection in Scarborough on her way home when Romano’s truck hit her. She was thrown an estimated 80 metres and pronounced dead at the scene.

This is Romano’s second trial. After the first trial in May, the jury was unable to come to a unanimous verdict after two days of deliberating.

After the jury foreperson read out the verdict on Wednesday night, Romano hugged his lawyer and sank into his seat in tears.

Abogado’s family, including her parents who attended both trials, left the courtroom in silence immediately after hearing the jury’s decision.

Romano declined to comment on the verdict as he left the courthouse with a large group of friends and family.

Romano disregarded the foreseeable risks of driving through a residential area with a seniors’ centre and bus stop nearby, Crown prosecutor Philip Perlmutter said during closing arguments Tuesday.

“(Abogado) died on account of a fatal combination of Mr. Romano’s excessive speed and lack of attention,” Perlmutter told the jury.

Defence lawyer Bill MacKenzie described what happened as a “tragic accident” adding that it was Abogado’s fateful decision to jaywalk across a busy four-lane road instead of using the crosswalk about 70 metres away.

She was wearing dark clothes and possibly had headphones on, he said.

Romano testified during the trial that he was in control of the car and focused on the road, only looking for pedestrians at intersections.

Police officers are permitted under the Highway Traffic Act to exceed speed limits during the lawful execution of their duties, the jury heard.

Romano was part of a team investigating a series of non-violent commercial break-ins, the jury heard. That night, they were following a white van that had been linked to the crimes.

Romano and another officer had fallen behind the others and were trying to catch up when the collision occurred, the jury heard.

Romano’s lawyer MacKenzie stressed during his closing arguments that surveillance operations can be unpredictable and Romano wanted to rejoin his team as quickly as possible.

“At what speed does he go from being a police officer serving his community to a convicted criminal?” MacKenzie asked the jury.

However, Perlmutter told the jury, the surveillance operation Romano was involved in that night was focused only on intelligence-gathering and was neither dangerous nor urgent.

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“(He was) not entitled to drive at those speeds, to put himself in position where he did not have the time and space to respond to a jaywalker,” Perlmutter said. “This did not justify the risk to the public.”

The jury heard from the Crown’s collision reconstruction expert that a car going more than 80 km/h would likely have hit Abogado; at a slower speed, a car may have been able to stop or swerve instead.

Perlmutter argued that Abogado’s decision to cross the road would have been based on the expectation that oncoming cars would be travelling at the speed limit of 60 km/h.