Mike on Crime

By Mike McIntyre and Gabrielle Giroday
Winnipeg Free Press

He is one of Winnipeg’s most high-profile car thieves, whose claim to shame was his role in a high-speed crash that killed a city cab driver.

Now the 18-year-old high-risk offender is back in custody, accused of driving a stolen Hummer that slammed into an innocent motorist last week, killing him.

Police and justice officials were stunned to learn the man accused in Friday’s death of Zdzislaw Andrzejczak is the same person who was linked to the March 2008 death of Antonio Lanzellotti. The Youth Criminal Justice Act does not permit media to publish the name of the accused if his prior criminal background as a young offender is reported.

“This is a double shock, a double shock. I can’t believe it,” Andrzejczak’s wife, Jolanta, told the Free Press on Tuesday upon learning of the man’s background. “Very, very young kids do whatever they like.”

The man — who turned 18 in July — was arrested Monday evening and has been charged with manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and theft over $5,000. He is also accused of breaching several probation orders that stem from previous criminal convictions.

Police are still searching for two other people who were believed to be in the Hummer. Both are believed to be youths with extensive prior involvement in the criminal justice system.

The man accused in Andrzejczak’s death pleaded guilty in June 2008 to being one of seven youths inside a stolen Silverado that was racing a stolen SUV carrying seven other teens down Portage Avenue. The SUV ended up slamming into Lanzellotti’s cab, killing him and seriously injuring another occupant.

The accused, who was 16 at the time, was identified by police as the driver of the Silverado but only admitted in court to being an occupant of the vehicle, which peeled off down a side street moments before the fatal crash. He was given 72 days of time in custody, plus two years of supervised probation, which included a curfew and not being in a car without permission.

The accused was back in court this summer, charged with breaching conditions of his probation. Justice sources told the Free Press the boy “went off the deep end” following the sudden death of his grandfather. A judge sentenced him to another year of probation.

Winnipeg police have classified the accused as a Level 4 offender in the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy, which is the maximum designation available and means he is under frequent supervision from police. However, he was not required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

There had been no arrests or criminal allegations since he walked out of court June 23.

“He’d actually been doing very well recently, or at least we thought,” a justice official said Tuesday. “Either that or he’s become very good at what he does.”

Police believe the accused was behind the wheel of a speeding 2005 Hummer H2 that crashed into a Subaru and killed Andrzejczak last Friday afternoon near the corner of Andrews Street and Alfred Avenue. The 47-year-old married father of one was only two blocks from his home.

Police arrested the accused around 6:40 p.m. Monday when officers from the stolen auto unit pulled over a vehicle in the Sargent Park area. He was a passenger in the vehicle at the time of the stop.

“The bottom line here is, we have an individual who’s lost his life from an individual who is quite simply chronically involved in this type of behaviour,” Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said Tuesday. The accused has not been tried and is considered not guilty of charges resulting from Friday’s crash.

“It is frustrating for us, there is no question, and members of our stolen auto unit when we are dealing with the same individuals time and time again.”

The Hummer was stolen from a parking lot on the 1800 block of Wellington Avenue earlier in the day last Friday.

One of Lanzellotti’s relatives said news that one of the 14 youths involved in his death had been linked to another senseless killing was hard to fathom.

“It’s been very difficult,” she said. “It brings back a lot of feelings.”

At the legislature Tuesday, the Conservative Opposition blasted the government for failing to vigorously enforce court orders, especially for the most serious car thieves.

Justice critic Kelvin Goertzen said auto thieves and gang members treat such orders “as a joke.” He said the 18-year-old accused in the fatal joyride already had a long history of breaching court orders.

“These criminals know that those court orders are not going to be enforced under this NDP government,” Goertzen said in the house.

Attorney General Andrew Swan said provincial governments have been pushing Ottawa for changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act that would allow judges to take deterrence into account when sentencing young offenders.

“That hasn’t happened yet. We hope to continue raising our voices,” he said.

Swan said the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy has worked well, reducing car thefts by 70 per cent since 2005, but he allowed “more work” needs to be done.

*****

The man accused of killing an innocent motorist while driving a stolen Hummer is no stranger to the justice system — or Free Press readers.

The paper introduced him earlier this year as Steve Cotter, one of 14 Winnipeg youths featured in an extensive look at the city’s auto-theft subculture. Fictional names were assigned to all the teens to avoid breaching the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which bars identifying young offenders. Steve, 16, pleaded guilty in June 2008 to being an occupant of a stolen Silverado, which had a high-speed race with a stolen SUV down Portage Avenue in March 2008. Moments later, the SUV smashed into a taxicab, killing the driver and seriously injuring his passenger.

At his sentencing hearing, the judge heard how Steve played a pivotal role in helping police re-create the events of the fateful night. As a result, he was given a break by the justice system. Steve had one prior conviction for auto theft — back in January 2008 — and was described as being deeply immersed in the city’s auto-theft sub-culture. His younger and older brothers also had criminal records.

Steve’s lawyer, Michelle Bright, said the teen co-operated fully with police to the point he “was essential” in helping them determine the identities of some of the other people involved, including the driver of the Avalanche that killed cab driver Tony Lanzellotti.

Although Steve was initially charged with driving the Silverado that was racing the Avalanche just prior to the crash, the Crown only proceeded on the less serious charge of property theft.

Provincial court Judge Ken Champagne tore a strip off Crown attorney Liz Pats when she tried to argue Steve should be given additional jail time in the context of the “larger picture” of youth auto theft in Winnipeg.

“Our position is that all 14 kids, if they hadn’t been driving around that night in these two vehicles, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place… I think there is a tie between these two vehicles, absolutely,” said Pats. “One car went straight, the other car turned — he was in the vehicle that turned. He can’t be blamed for what happened with the accident, but I think that when you look at the entire scenario of what happened that night, he certainly had a part to play.”

Champagne charged that Pats’ detailed explanation of that morning’s events — specifically the ones involving the crash — was an argument posed to unfairly ask the court to make an example out of the teen for things he didn’t do.

“Are you not asking me to impose a sentence to specifically deter this young man and to send a message to other young offenders involved in these types of cases to denounce their conduct?” Champagne asked. “That’s the flavour and the underpinnings of your delivery here today. Simply going through those facts, is that fair to this accused, who’s pled guilty to being a passenger in a (stolen) truck?” he told her.

Bright indicated it was unfair of the Crown to play up the circumstances of one incident and apply them to another in which the teen had no direct involvement. In sentencing the teen, Champagne indicated while he was indeed tempted to send a message to the teen and other youths involved in auto thefts, the YCJA — and its emphasis on the rehabilitation and reintegration of young offenders — barred him from doing it. “I can’t help but be tempted to impose a sentence that would address the principles of deterrence and denunciation, but I know I can’t do that… I completely understand the Crown’s frustration,” he said.

*****

Jolanta Andrzejczak met her husband Zdzislaw in 1980 when she was only 16 years old. Her future husband was 18 at the time.

This Saturday, she’ll bury him after nearly 30 years together.

Jolanta works as a dressmaker, and her husband was an auto mechanic who immigrated to Canada from Poland about 20 years ago.

“One hour I’m crying, one hour I’m not crying,” she said.

Even as she struggles through her grief, she shares the frustration of police and social workers who try to help young offenders.

“I feel a little bit sorry for the men and women working for the justice system.”

Andrzejczak points to the police officer who held her hand and calmed her down at the hospital after she rushed there after the crash.

“He talked to me, and he really made sure I was with someone, because I was alone at that time,” she said.

Two years ago, Andrzejczak’s husband tried to catch children who had crashed a car in the back lane of their Redwood Avenue home. She and her husband saw three children about 12 or 13 years old in the car before it crashed into a neighbour’s fence and stopped. The children ran away.

“(My husband) tried to catch even one, but he (couldn’t),” she said.

Andrzejczak would like to see stiffer legal penalties for youths who commit crimes like auto theft.

Her husband’s funeral is scheduled for Saturday morning at Holy Ghost Parish on Selkirk Avenue.

*****

Winnipeg Police Service Chief Keith McCaskill said the fatal crash highlights officers’ struggles to combat car thieves. He’d like to see some young offenders do more time behind bars.

The Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy has about 130 to 135 Level 3 and 4 offenders, who are deemed at highest risk to reoffend.

Police, probation officers and dedicated auto theft Crown attorneys monitor the youths to ensure they are meeting restrictions like curfews.

Six people are required to wear electronic monitoring bracelets.

All three suspects police believe were involved in the Dec. 11 fatal crash are chronic car thieves well-known in the Winnipeg legal community.

McCaskill said judges should be handing out stiffer sentences in some cases where people are “continuously committing crimes” like repeat car theft.

“The first thing has to be public safety. When they’re stealing cars and serious things like this are occurring… there’s got to be an ability to get them off the street and make sure the public is safe,” he said.

“When that doesn’t happen, tragedies can occur.”

Tactics like electronic bracelets help authorities crack down on some repeat car thieves, but aren’t a silver bullet, the chief said.

“Police officers right across the board would certainly support giving treatment for these young people to straighten out, but there comes a point… where we have take a very, very strong stance on these people and they have to be taken off the street.”