Under The Influence

"Mr. Pearce made multiple decisions over an extended period of time, preferring his interests over those of Aaron Stevenson's."
"While Mr. Greer clearly went along with everything, and was in all respects a willing participant in the misdeeds of that night, he was not the one calling the shots."
"This is a very sad case, involving as it does the tragic death of a talented 16-year-old boy who was well-loved, popular."
"What they did is offensive because to a large degree the way we treat the dead demonstrates the value we place upon life. A life having come to an end is a momentous event deserving of pause and respect."
"For all he knew, as he drove away, keeping his cellphone in his pocket, a fellow man lay merely injured by the side of the dark sparsely used highway, a fellow man who could very well have been in dire need of assistance. His act of leaving the scene, therefore, was not only contrary to the Criminal Code but contrary to any standard of decency and humanity."
Justice Kevin Phillips, Brockville, Ontario

Aaron Stevenson (Submitted photo).

On September 1, 2013, 16-year-old Aaron Stevenson  was at a house party in celebration of the end of summer, following a day of road hockey. Aaron relaxed with his friends, drinking a few beers, smoking a little marijuana. He was not impaired through marijuana intoxication. But he was an exuberant teen, enjoying life and wanting a whole lot more of it before returning to school for the next academic year, a few days off.

Willy and Kelly Stevenson, holding a life size photo of their late son Aaron, speak to the media outside of Brockville court following a recent sentencing hearing for Rusty Pearce and Joseph Greer. (RECORDER AND TIMES FILE PHOTO).

He left the house party around half-past eleven, with a friend. Both boys wore dark clothing, making them very vulnerable, skateboarding on the road en route to their homes, along Highway 2, a two-lane stretch without lighting, and with a posted speed limit of 80 kilometres an hour. The boys were pretty high on life and the pleasure of just being wherever they happened to be at any given time. It's what boys are like, isn't it?

Mind, they must have known better than to do their skateboarding in the middle of the road. But when you're young, you are also invincible, and since some invisible guardian is always hovering above, you know you can risk a little bit of extra fun without coming to harm. That's not how it turned out for Aaron Stevenson, though. There were two others at a party in the town, older than the teens, but not all that much older. They were well past the derring-do stage and into the becoming-adult stage.

Rusty Pearce and Joseph Greer left that party with Greer in a "highly intoxicated" state, and his companion, having had a few beers, and having snorted cocaine, feeling good but evidently not quite impaired. Mr. Pearce got behind the wheel of Mr. Greer's Dodge Dakota, setting out for home around 11:00 p.m. Around midnight, westward on Highway 2, driving at the speed limit, Greer passed out, and Pearce soon afterward felt the vehicle striking someone/something.

Mr. Pearce didn't slow the truck, and drove from the scene. He had struck Aaron Stevenson from behind as the boy skateboarded in the middle of the lane, and couldn't be seen because of his dark clothing. Aaron fell backward with his hitting the truck just where the hood meets the windshield, dying instantly. His body lifted by the impact over the cab, landed in the truck's flatbed. Pearce, knowing he had hit something, drove on, never expecting that the something was right there keeping pace with him.

When the two men exited the vehicle for the very important purpose of determining the extent of the damage done to it they discovered the boy's body, and they thought it would be a good idea to haul Aaron's body to a nearby skate park. The boy's death, they felt, would be held to be the result of a skateboarding accident. That done, Pearce telephoned police to inform them he had noticed, while walking, someone lying in the skate park.

Rusty Pearce is led by Const. Jeff McConnell to the Brockville jail after a sentencing hearing in this file photo. (RECORDER AND TIMES FILE PHOTO)

He had checked for a pulse, he said, and since there was none, refused the 911 operator's recommendation to perform CPR, insisting he had no idea how long the body had been lying there. Greer was picked up by police not far from the skate park, for driving while impaired, his blood alcohol reading double the legal limit. At his arrest, he confessed what had occurred. Pearce was discovered at his sister's house around 7:00 a.m.

Joseph Greer is led away from the Brockville courthouse after pleading guilty to charges related to the hit-and-run death of Aaron Stevenson. (DARCY CHEEK/The Recorder and Times/QMI AGENCY)

Both pleaded guilty to charges of hit-and-run. Rusty Pearce was sentenced to two years less a day for his part in the attempted deception. He was banned from driving for a five-year period. Joseph Greer whose truck hit the boy his friend was driving, was sentenced to a year and a half in prison, his license suspended for three years, his truck impounded.