Brittany Boyce was sobbing so hard she could hardly catch her breath.

“It’s so painful,” she said from the courtroom prisoner’s box. “Like, I just can’t imagine what they’re gong through.”

She was talking about the family of Deborah Titus, 64, the woman she ran over and killed in a London dental office parking lot after trying to snatch her purse less than a month ago.

Titus’s daughter, Donna, and brother, Bob Chimney, sat quietly in the public gallery Tuesday as Boyce, 29, pleaded guilty to manslaughter less than a month after Titus’s death.

It was a surprisingly early guilty plea, a rarity in a such a serious case.

But Boyce, who wasn’t arrested until a week after Titus’s death and has a history of drug addiction, told Ontario Court Justice Wayne Rabley she wanted to plead guilty right away so Titus’s family wouldn’t go through any more painful waiting, especially during the Christmas season.

It was difficult. Before she entered her guilty plea, the judge asked if she wanted time to pull herself together.

No, she said, she wanted to continue because “it just feels like the right thing to do.”

Boyce was doing everything wrong on Nov. 21, the day Titus died, almost from the moment she arrived in the Dundas Street ­parking lot as a passenger in a friend’s car.

In an abbreviated outline of the case, assistant Crown attorney Steve Monaghan told Rabley that Boyce and another woman stayed in the vehicle while the driver went into another business.

The women saw Titus enter the parking lot — in other reports, she arrived on her scooter — on her way to Longo Dentistry. Boyce approached Titus and asked for change for a $50 bill.

Titus showed Boyce she had “a handful of cash” in her purse and told Boyce she couldn’t help her until after her appointment.

Boyce followed Titus into the office, snatched her purse and fled. Titus followed her, along with an employee at the office.

Boyce jumped into the driver’s seat of the car with the car door still open. Titus struggled with Boyce to get the purse back for about two seconds, when the windshield wipers came on.

Boyce put the car in reverse, pulling Titus under the wheel. The dental office employee was dragged across the parking lot and suffered minor injuries.

All of this, Monaghan said, was caught on surveillance video at the dental clinic that will be played at Boyce’s sentencing on Feb. 14.

“I didn’t know anybody got hit. I didn’t know anybody got hurt,” she said through her tears. “I haven’t seen the video.”

Rabley confirmed with Boyce that she knew that the Crown was seeking a term behind bars and that there may be terms to keep her from driving.

“I don’t think I ever want to (drive) again anyways,” she said.

Outside court, lawyer Jim Dean said Boyce had been his client for a couple of years and had a history of drug issues. At one point, she had “a regular life” with a family of her own before she became an addict to “pretty much anything under the sun.”

When Boyce drove out of the parking lot after running over Titus, “she was in a panic, she was in a mad rush to get out,” Dean said.

“She didn’t realize right away that Ms. Titus had gone under the vehicle.”

Boyce told Dean she wasn’t high on drugs at the time.

He agreed a guilty plea so early was rare. “It’s simply due to the client’s wishes. Brittany, from the outset, has expressed her remorse and desire to get this done for the family, solely for the family.

“Specifically, given the time of year, it was her express wish she wanted it all done so the family didn’t have to go through Christmas, not only without their mother, but with the court matter hanging over their heads.”

Dean said the video that shows Boyce’s culpability is “clear-cut” and he said he has “no doubt” she will benefit from the help offered in the prison system once she is sentenced.

Titus’s daughter, Donna, wasn’t convinced that the early guilty plea was done for their benefit.

“If you want it done, you shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” she said.

Boyce’s tears, in Donna Titus’s view, were just for Boyce.

Her mother, she said, had children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was “a very kind-hearted, loving person” who is missed by her friends at her seniors’ apartment building and her family.

“She was my mom and I loved her lots,” she said.

And Donna Titus added, her mother was “very proud of her scooter. It gave her the independence, because she never drove.”

The guilty plea may soothe Boyce’s heart, she said, but “our hearts are still going to be broken and things are not going to be ever the same.”

Boyce returns to court on other matters on Jan. 4 and will be sentenced on the manslaughter conviction on Feb. 14.

jsims@postmedia.com

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