BARRIE

There’s no question that Marcello Fracassi killed an Alliston town worker in June 2014 as his speeding truck emerged from the night and plowed through a work zone. What a judge must now decide is whether Fracassi was drunk at the wheel or asleep.

In closing arguments at Fracassi’s trial Friday, his lawyer said Fracassi would have to be a “disgusting human being” to hit and kill a man, then drive home and go to bed.

“That person would have to be evil and a coward,” lawyer James Flemming said. He claims his client is a nice guy who suffers from a sleep disorder and was not driving drunk, but driving while in a state like sleepwalking.

“This is one of those rarest of cases,” Flemming told the judge. “It’s bizarre, it’s wacko, but it happens.”

Fracassi pleaded not guilty to drunk driving causing death, drunk driving causing bodily harm and fleeing the scene.

Town worker Geoffrey Gaston, 41, was killed and his co-worker was injured when they were struck by Fracassi’s pickup in the middle of the night as they painted traffic lines on Alliston’s main drag on June 20, 2014. Fracassi then swerved around a transport truck when its driver attempted to block his way and sped off, court heard.

Police followed a trail of debris to Fracassi’s home and three hours later he took a breath test that showed he was over twice the legal limit for operating a vehicle. The Crown suggests he could have been three to four times the legal limit at the time of the crash, after a “boys’ night out” drinking at a concert and a strip bar in Toronto.

But the defence claims Fracassi drank at home after the incident and wasn’t impaired behind the wheel. Flemming put the blame on his clients’ sleep disorder, combined with unsafe operations by the town workers, suggesting they did not use enough work zone signs.

“It was unsafe to the extreme,” Flemming said Friday.

Court had heard the workers wore reflective clothing as they worked in the middle of the downtown road near a work truck with flashing lights.

Earlier in the trial Fracassi testified he remembers nothing about the crash and that he regularly sleepwalks and often discovers in the morning he has urinated in corners or closets or has had heated arguments with his wife, none of which he remembers.

Crown attorney Mary Ann Alexander scoffed at the “sleep driving” defence.

“He doesn’t remember what he did because he was drunk — full stop,” she said during her closing argument Friday.

“I ask your Honour to take a step back and see how simple this case is — this is not about sleep walking. This is about a man who drank too much and got behind a wheel and killed somebody ... his lack of memory is just a fancy word for blackout.”

Justice Cary Boswell will announce his verdict Nov. 1.