Anger, grief at sentencing of impaired man who drove 172 km/h before fatal Hants County crash

One by one, friends and family of two 20-year-olds killed in a 2023 car crash read wrenching victim impact statements Friday in a Kentville, N.S., courtroom, describing their searing grief over the young lives cut short, words coupled with tears and, at moments, seething with anger.

Drake Robert Brown, 23, faced sentencing on two counts of impaired driving causing death and one count of impaired driving causing bodily harm, with the court told he sped more than 170 km/h before the collision that killed two passengers, Brayden Lemmon and Victoria Cousins, and injured a third.

“I am asking and praying for justice for Brayden and Victoria,” Kyla Loane, Lemmon’s mother, told provincial court Judge Ronda van der Hoek.

As the statements were read, Brown hung his head. More than three dozen family members and friends of the victims attended the hearing, so many that some had to sit in an overflow courtroom and watch the proceedings by video.

It took an investigation lasting more than 14 months before RCMP laid charges. For many of those in court it was the first time they heard the official facts of what happened the night of Aug. 24, 2023, on a rural highway at Windsor Forks, N.S.

Prosecutor Robert Kennedy said Cousins and Lemmon were rear seat passengers in a 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo driven by Brown. He later told police he had snorted multiple lines of cocaine and had been drinking that night. Later testing showed his blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit.

Brown was chasing two other vehicles driven by people he knew, according to the agreed facts. An RCMP collision analyst later determined he’d been driving 172 km/h in a 70 km/h zone five seconds before his vehicle crashed with an oncoming pickup on Highway 14.

Cousins and Lemmon were ejected and died immediately. Dimitri Church, a passenger in the front seat, suffered a torn ear and a significant laceration to the back of his head. Brown was bleeding profusely from a scalp wound.

According to the agreed facts, Brown “spontaneously uttered” to police and first responders that he had “wrecked” his car, and he told a bystander he didn’t want to lose his licence.

The facts laid out Friday were particularly important to Church. He told CBC News that for months after the crash, rumour swirled that he was the driver. People even called him a murderer.

“It’s relieving,” he said of hearing the agreed facts in court. “It honestly is one of the best feelings to actually have that there and see that they’ve brought it through the right way.”

Prosecutors have indicated they are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for Brown. Legal aid lawyer Jonathan Hughes, who is representing Brown, has not yet indicated to the court his sentencing position.

Hughes declined an interview at this point in the proceedings. Brown pleaded guilty in September to the charges. 

Forty-two victim impact statements were filed and about a dozen were read out loud Friday. A placard with photos of Lemmon and Cousins was positioned near where family and friends spoke. Tracy O’Handley, the mother of Cousins, brought an urn with her daughter’s ashes.

“My pain will continue until the day that I die,” she said. Her daughter, she said, would never go to college, travel or get married and have children.

The court was told Cousins was a Girl Guides leader, and was preparing to take a sign language course after meeting someone who was deaf. Lemmon, described by his sister as a “protector, source of comfort,” had hoped to get a job at an Alberta ski resort.

Some of those who gave statements to the court recalled the excruciating moment they learned of the deaths, the screams of family members, and the days, weeks and months that followed. 

“It honestly feels as if half of me has been ripped away from existence,” said Ian Lemmon, Brayden Lemmon’s twin brother.

The sentencing hearing continues March 4.

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