Man found not guilty in 2019 crash that killed 2 young girls north of Dauphin

The family of Oksana Dutchyshen, 6, and Quinn Dutchyshen, 4, who died in an August 2019 collision, say they were "shattered" Thursday morning after the man accused of driving the truck that crashed into them was found not guilty.

The mother of the two girls fell to her knees in sobs outside a Manitoba provincial courtroom in Dauphin, while other family members clutched each other crying after the decision was read. Others yelled at RCMP officers, saying they failed to find justice in Oksana and Quinn's deaths.

The accused was charged nearly a year after the crash, in July 2020, with 15 offences, including impaired driving causing death.

"The crash resulted in catastrophic damage and devastating and irrevocable loss," Justice Sandra Zinchuk said in her Thursday decision.

However, while Crown prosecutor Mitchell Lavitt argued the accused was the driver of the truck involved in the fatal Aug. 16, 2019, crash, defence attorney Jonathan Pinx said there was reasonable doubt about that, since another man was also in the vehicle at the time of the crash.

Ultimately, Zinchuk agreed there was reasonable doubt about whether the accused was the driver, she said in her decision, delivered after a judge-only trial that began in October 2022.

Gaylene Dutchyshen, the grandmother of the two girls, said the decision makes it feel like the last three-and-a-half years of misery after their deaths have been for nothing.

"It's just destroyed our family.… Our family is shattered, shattered beyond repair and we have to pick up and go on and live life without those little girls," she said through tears after Thursday's decision.

"They don't get to grow up. They don't get to go to school.... Everything is empty without them."

The family was outside the courthouse before the decision was delivered, holding signs calling for justice for Quinn and Oksana.

Identity of driver not proven: justice

Oksana and Quinn were killed after the Dodge pickup truck being driven by their mom, Clare McBride, was hit by a Ford pickup at the intersection of Road 147 N and Highway 362, about one and a half kilometres north of Dauphin.

McBride and another woman in her vehicle were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The two men in the Ford, neither of whom were wearing seatbelts, also sustained serious injuries. The accused, who was the owner of the truck, was found outside the vehicle but near the driver's door, court heard. The other man was ejected from the vehicle due to the force of the crash.

Both men had been drinking before the crash, court heard.

The accused man's DNA was the only DNA found on the driver's-side airbag following what RCMP said at the time of his arrest was an "exhaustive investigation."

Zinchuk said the DNA evidence could have been the result of a secondary transfer in several ways — including by food items dislodged during the crash as the truck flipped upside down.

She added it was most likely impossible to exit from the passenger door of the Ford after the crash, according to a witness — although no adequate photos of the crash were able to show this.

That meant the accused could have gotten DNA on the airbag while exiting the vehicle even if he was the passenger, rather than the driver, the judge said.

Doubt about his guilt was also created through multiple statements the other man in the truck provided to RCMP, Zinchuk said.

"There was an evolution to [his] statements as he got further away in time from the collision," she said. "He went from an admission to being the driver, to a possibility of being the driver and finally an effective denial of being the driver."

The other man who was in the pickup has since died.

Family members of Oksana and Quinn yelled at the accused as he and his family left the courtroom on Thursday.

Gaylene Dutchyshen said with a not-guilty verdict and no sentencing, she and her family will be unable to read victim impact statements and share what life is like without Oksana and Quinn.

"You don't get to say how this affected us, never mind … what it robbed from them, these two little girls, that never get to take another breath," she said.