The family of Matthew Cruz is anxious for justice but doubtful that it can be achieved, even if Akamjot Sandhu is found guilty of dangerous driving and impaired driving causing death.
“We don’t know if we’re even going to get justice. This guy might do two years. Every day I try to tell people, ‘What’s the new life like? You live with the grief demons,’” Matthew’s father Jack Cruz said outside the Brampton, Ont., courthouse on Thursday.
On Sept. 11, 2021, just before 12:30 a.m., Matthew was in an Uber on his way home from work and was involved in a collision. He was pronounced dead in hospital.
“The thing is, he normally gets a bus home but he took an Uber that night,” said Zak Cruz, Matthew’s older brother.
The jury heard that a black Volkswagen Jetta, which was allegedly being driven by Sandhu, was going northbound on Winston Churchill Boulevard when it struck the white Subaru that Matthew was in. The Subaru was travelling southbound, attempting to make a left turn on Burnhamthorpe Road.
The jury heard in the opening statement from assistant Crown prosecutor Ryan Moir that they’re expected to hear evidence that Sandhu was travelling between 120 and 130 kilometres an hour at the time of the collision. The speed limit on Winston Churchill Boulevard is 60 kilometres an hour.
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Moir also told jurors that the readings will show that Sandhu had a minimum of 56 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood at the time of the collision. The readings are also expected to show that Sandhu had 10 nanograms of THC in his blood. Moir said the evidence is expected to show the combination of alcohol and cannabis is roughly four times the legal limit.
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Jurors saw a videotaped police statement Thursday that Sandhu gave police at the time of the collision. In the video, Sandhu admitted to drinking and smoking cannabis that night, and explained that’s why a man named “Jay” was driving.
Sandhu’s former girlfriend Jasnit Badwal also testified for the Crown. She told the jury that the couple had been at Dave and Buster’s before the collision and were contemplating going either home or to Boston Pizza at the time of the crash.
Badwal admitted that while in Sunnybrook Hospital after the collision, she told police that a man named Jay was driving. She testified that two-and-a-half months later, she went to a police station and identified Sandhu as the driver and said she was the passenger. She said she decided to come forward to “clear her conscience.”
Badwal said she didn’t see Sandhu smoke weed but recalled him drinking at Dave and Buster’s.
She also told the jury she was seeking $3 million in a civil suit against Sandhu and the Uber driver. Badwal said she spent two days in hospital and suffered a broken collar bone, a collapsed lung, a hematoma, liver lacerations and cuts to her head, shoulder and chest. She says she continues to suffer from nerve damage to her knee.
During cross-examination, Sandhu’s lawyer suggested that Badwal was driving that night. She disagreed.
Sandhu has pleaded not guilty.
The family of Matthew Cruz says there is now an annual charity golf tournament in his name, with proceeds going to the Jays Care Foundation. Matthew loved the Toronto Blue Jays.
Last September, while being driven home through Milton after the tournament, the family was hit by another alleged drunk driver.
“I broke my sternum. I was off work for six months. Leaving a tournament to remember my son and we get wiped out by another (alleged) drunk driver,” Cruz said outside court, shaking his head.
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