A man found guilty of killing his friend in a crash has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least ten years.
The mandatory minimum sentence for 45-year-old Andrew Cowan was handed down in Windsor's Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon. He has also been banned from owning weapons for the rest of his life.
Cowan was convicted of second degree murder in August for killing Edward Witt in a high speed crash in Leamington five years ago. He was driving Witt's pickup truck when it slammed into a commercial building in 2012.
Defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme says an appeal will be filed by December 21, and hopes that Cowan will be released on bail waiting for a decision.
"I'm hopeful this case gets overturned on appeal, and I expect that he will be released pending appeal because he has lived on bail conditions that are quite strict for three years without any breaches," says Ducharme.
Cowan told the justice just before he went to prison that he's not guilty. Ducharme says the friends made a suicide pact.
A motion for a mistrial was thrown out on Monday. Ducharme says the justice and the prosecutor had an improper relationship during his client's trial.
Ducharme says that Cowan has a severe head injury, and hopes that will get him paroled at the ten-year mark if the appeal fails.
"He has a catastrophic brain injury and requires almost 24-7 supervision and help. He's been in assisted care living and living with aunts," Ducharme says.
He says that Cowan looks good to get the earliest parole of ten years, but hopes an appeal works out.
"I'm hoping it gets overturned and we either do it again and do it better, or maybe it doesn't have to be done over again if a prosecutor smiles on us and says this is not worth trying again," says Ducharme.