Juan Alvarez gets 2 year sentence for drunk driving death
Alvarez claimed he was in the passenger's seat but DNA evidence proved he was driving
A Richmond man who blamed his cousin for being behind the wheel of a fatal car crash in 2010 is going to jail for two years.
Juan Alvarez was sentenced to two years in prison and given a five year driving ban Tuesday morning in B.C. Provincial Court for dangerous driving and impaired driving related to the May 6, 2010 crash that killed his cousin, Juan Carlos Quijanos Flores.
For three years, Alvarez told police Quijanos Flores had been in the driver's seat when the vehicle slammed into a median on the Knight Street Bridge. It wasn't until DNA evidence proved he was lying that he plead guilty to impaired driving and dangerous driving.
Quijanos Flores' father, Carlos Quijanos, said now that Alvarez has been sentenced, the family will begin the process of moving forward.
"It's always painful, it's a losing losing situation," he said.
"We lost our son and my sister in law is going to lose her kid for two years, right? Nobody wins in this situation."
Quijanos said he is relieved his son's name has been cleared.
Judge Kathryn Denhoff noted the harm Alvarez's actions, as well as his prolonged false testimony, did to both families.
She did point out his genuine remorse, but also noted just how intoxicated Alvarez was — as well as how dangerously he was driving — the night he killed his cousin and blamed him for it.
with sources from the CBC's Terry Donnelly