Ten months after the crash that killed a 16-year-old Burnaby girl, the man accused of driving the car she rode in appeared in B.C. Provincial Court on Monday for the first time.
Christopher Walter Baires, 19, is facing nine charges in connection with the incident.
Four teens, two females and two males, were on their way back from White Pine Beach on the night of Sept. 2, when the driver of the 1990 white Honda Civic tried passing another vehicle around a blind corner on Bedwell Bay Road. The car veered off the road and struck a tree.
The occupants were taken to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, where Melissa June Tomac, who had been sitting in the rear passenger seat, died of her injuries. Melissa, a Burnaby Central student about to go into Grade 11, was in the car with her boyfriend, best friend and Baires.
At the time, police attributed the crash to high speed and driver inexperience, and possibly alcohol.
On Monday, Dinah Tomac told The Province that before her daughter left for the beach that morning, Melissa had given her a hug.
"She was in a really good mood. I thought it would just be a simple trip to the beach."
Then she got a call around 7 p.m. telling her to come to the hospital. There, Dinah said they weren't allowed to be with Melissa as the doctors worked.
"She fought for her life for four or five hours. I didn't get to hold her hand, say goodbye, anything."
Dinah said she's almost lived a double life since her daughter died, putting on a brave face when leaving her house each day.
"It's been a living, breathing nightmare," Dinah said.
"It's ripped my heart out, and my life's never going to be the same," father Mario told the Burnaby NOW last year. "What I'll always remember about my daughter is her pretty little face smiling at me each morning. ... She was always giving me hugs and kisses. She was the best girl in the world."
Baires is charged with two counts each of impaired driving causing bodily harm, causing an accident resulting in bodily harm and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He is also charged with impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm and causing an accident resulting in death.
Baires briefly appeared before a justice of the peace in a Port Coquitlam courtroom with his parents, and wore a suit and a red tie. He is scheduled to be in court next on July 28.
- with files from Alfie Lau, Burnaby NOW
