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“As a consequence of what you did, he is dead. They have lost whatever future they had with him. I’m sure you can identify with this as you have three children. They must be devastated and cannot bring him back.”

Roland Giesbrecht, the victim’s father, said he was not pleased with the reduced plea and sentence.

“I don’t understand how you can be involved in a hit and run, leave and hide,” he said from his home in British Columbia. “I find that pretty cowardly that she left my son there. If I hit someone I’d stop. I’d do that for animals, but she decided to take off.”

Bates said his client was saddened by the event and has a great appreciation of what occurred, however, he said the circumstances of the case were very close to not having any offence at all.

He said she did stop at the scene, then went knocking on doors in the area for help before driving home.

“Had she returned after ringing doorbells there would have been no offence at all,” Bates said. “Or if she had left behind a phone number before driving away, there was no offence.”

Bates said McMillan was suspended with pay and not assigned any duties after initially being charged. He was not certain what her work status would be now.

Earlier, Hadford said McMillan was driving 62 kilometres per hour in her 2008 Ford Escape eastbound on 17th St. on her way home from a poker tournament at a city casino on Blackfoot Trail when she reached the intersection about 2:30 a.m.

The prosecutor said it was raining and the road was wet but there was artificial lighting and the road was clear. He added, however, there was no evidence the overhead pedestrian light was activated when Giesbrecht and a friend were crossing.