A young man accused of killing Const. Garrett Styles of York Regional Police in a highway crash in June 2011 pleaded guilty on Monday to manslaughter.

Known only as S.K., the man was sentenced in a Newmarket courtroom on Monday to two years probation with several conditions restricting his operation of a motor vehicle, York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe said in a news release on Monday.

The man, who was 15 at the time of the incident and not named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was rendered a quadriplegic in the crash north of Toronto that killed Styles, a married Newmarket father of two children.

In 2015, S.K. was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to a conditional supervision order for nine years, after the trial judge found he was already effectively serving a life sentence as a result of his physical state and that he had been rehabilitated.

Lawyers for S.K. appealed his conviction, alleging the trial judge made several legal errors and that the first-degree murder verdict was unreasonable.

In October 2019, the Court of Appeal for Ontario found the trial judge erred in failing to caution jurors that they should consider the accused's age and level of maturity at the time of the incident in determining whether he knew his actions were likely to cause Styles's death.

Jolliffe said the appeal court noted that S.K. suffered "permanent, life-altering injuries."

The appeal court ordered a new trial for S.K.

According to Jolliffe, a number of judicial pretrial meetings were held, and the Crown and S.K. agreed on the terms of the guilty plea on Monday and sentencing conditions.

Jolliffe said the Crown talked extensively with members of the Styles family and they felt "very strongly" they could not endure another trial. The Crown also took into consideration the impact of a second trial on witnesses, many of whom were first responders at the time of the crash.

"While this result is not what many of us were hoping for, after eight grueling years navigating the criminal justice system and consulting closely with the Crown, this outcome seemed to best serve all involved," Jolliffe said.

"We will continue to support Garrett's family and his many friends."

Styles died 'tragically and heroically' in line of duty

In June 2011, S.K. had taken his parents' van late at night to go driving with friends — despite having no licence — when Styles pulled them over in East Gwillimbury, Ont.

According to testimony at trial, Styles sought to impound the van and repeatedly asked the teen driver to step out of the vehicle, eventually reaching inside to unbuckle his seatbelt.

The van then suddenly accelerated and dragged the officer about 300 metres before veering off the road and landing on top of him.

The Crown alleged that S.K. had meant to drive away, while the defence argued that he did so in a state of panic.

An obituary for Styles, published in the Toronto Star, said he died "tragically and heroically in the line of duty" on Tuesday, June 28, 2011.