The parents of Gabriel del Castillo Mullally, a 色色啦 Metropolitan University business law student who died early Feb. 5, 2023, after being run over on the Danforth, told his killer鈥檚 sentencing hearing earlier this week they are consumed by grief, rage and disbelief over his senseless loss.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember the last time I smiled or laughed,鈥 said his father, Guy Mullally. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember the last time I felt any kind of joy or happiness that wasn鈥檛 overshadowed by this terrible tragedy.鈥澛
鈥淚 used to get paid to go act and be on set,鈥 said his mother, Maria del Mar Castillo Mullally, referencing her 40 years as a professional actor. 鈥淣ow I act every minute of every day in order to exist.鈥
Sniffling and fighting back tears, she continued: 鈥淚 have spent 80 to 90 per cent of the last two years in my bedroom avoiding, seeing, people, and burdening them, and myself, for how I truly feel, and the despair and the horror that I feel given the slightest provocation.鈥
Their victim impact statements came as the case enters the sentencing phase, with Justice Susanne Boucher now tasked with deciding the ultimate fate of Ryan Andrews, 26. Earlier this year, a 色色啦 jury convicted Andrews of second-degree murder for killing Del Castillo Mullally outside the Rusty Nail pub. Andrews is facing an automatic life sentence, with the judge set to decide when he can first apply for parole.
Prosecutors are pushing for a parole ineligibility period of 15 years, arguing the killing contained elements of planning and deliberation that justify a harsher penalty.
The prosecutors are also asking the judge to reject Andrews鈥 testimony that he had been robbed of his cellphone inside the pub. 鈥淭he robbery didn鈥檛 happen,鈥 said Crown attorney Karolina Visic, adding that while there may have been a 鈥渟cuffle鈥 inside the bar, Del Castillo Mullally wasn鈥檛 a part of it.
Defence lawyers Sherif Foda and Zaire Puil are asking the judge to impose a 10-year wait, noting that was the unanimous recommendation of jurors.
They also continue to argue that the fatal act was not intentional, that Andrews was provoked, along with being drunk and high, when he drove his Subaru Outback onto the sidewalk, striking Del Castillo Mullally.
And further, the defence argues that Andrews鈥 actions were shaped by inter-generational harms relating to residential schools. Because Andrews is from Batchewana First Nation, near Sault Ste. Marie, his lawyers plan to ask Justice Boucher to convene a sentencing circle.聽
The Supreme Court has found that sentencing judges must examine the unique factors that may have played a part in bringing an Indigenous offender before the courts. A sentencing circle involves the offender sitting down with victims, community representatives, elders and more to come to a collective position on a fit sentence, although the final decision rests with the judge.
For the victim鈥檚 parents, the defence arguments fell on deaf ears.
What happened that night was a 鈥渄eliberate act of human violence,鈥 said Guy Mullally.
Del Mar del Castillo said her son played a peace-keeping role that night, just as he did throughout his life. Nor is anyone offering her a sentencing circle to help deal with her grief, she said bitterly.
She also wanted it noted that her gifted and talented son was not a child actor, as has been reported. He only appeared in two films.
After she was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, her son shifted his priorities and the two planned to take a trip together 鈥 set for two weeks after his death. 鈥淗ow many 25-year-old men take trips with their mothers alone?鈥
She also noted how she chose to raise her son in Canada, not Los Angeles. 鈥淚t鈥檚 enraging to think if I had decided to stay in Los Angeles, rife with racism and safety concerns, that my son would still be alive,鈥 she said with her voice rising.
Sentencing submissions will continue later this month.
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