By: Mark Pavilons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, King Weekly Sentinel
A list of stringent conditions are imposed on convicted impaired driver Marco Muzzo.
The Parole Board of Canada granted full parole recently, with a long list of conditions.
The former King resident cannot have any contact with the victims or victims’ families. He’s banned from entering both York and Brampton.
Muzzo must follow his treatment plan with a focus on substance use, emotions management, victim empathy and reintegration stressors. He’s also to refrain from drinking alcohol and entering establishments that serve alcohol.
The 34-year-old first-time offender was serving a nine-year, four-month sentence for four counts of impaired driving cause death and two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm. Along with the sentence, he has been banned from driving for 12 years.
Muzzo was convicted in the 2015 impaired driving related deaths of four members of the Nevile-Lake family. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and given a 12-year driving ban.
The collision claimed the lives of nine-year-old Daniel Neville-Lake, his five-year-old brother, Harrison, their two-year-old sister, Milly, and the children’s 65-year-old grandfather, Gary Neville. The children’s grandmother and great-grandmother were also seriously injured.
Victim statements, including four presented during the hearing Feb. 9, revealed the families’ unrelenting grief, anger, fear and frustration.
“Their anguish is palpable. Your choices and actions have left them struggling psychologically, emotionally, physically and financially … Their voices confirmed the profound irrevocable devastation resulting from your offending,” the board report stated.
The board noted they placed considerable weight on the victims’ statements with regards to Muzzo’s liberty within the community.
The board pointed out that Muzzo made gains through counselling while incarcerated, and this led the board to grant day parole in April 2020.
He was released and sent to a Community Residential Facility where similar conditions were enforced.
There have been no known breaches to those release conditions and Muzzo adhered to all the rules.
“This indicates positive progress toward reintegration.”
Muzzo has opened a satellite office of the family’s contracting business, and he’s working three days per week. He remains at his apartment, visited by his family and fiancee. Muzzo has also spent time volunteering, and plans to help renovate and transform a school into a homeless shelter.
The board noted Muzzo wants to return home to his residence in King, but since it’s close to a memorial site for the victims, there’s a possibility of unintended contact.
The board believes Muzzo’s hope to move back to King is self-serving and doesn’t fully empathize with the victims.
“… your insistence on returning to live in the community where the victims are memorialized and the surviving victims regularly frequent, is concerning.”
While reintegration is the ultimate goal, the board noted he “still has work to do, particularly in the ares of victim empathy and community acceptance. It will be important for you to always be mindful that your liberty in the community is conditional, and that you remain under supervision until warrant expiry.”
“The board recognizes that returning home may facilitate your reintegration. However, there is no suggestion that you cannot be rehabilitated and process through full reintegration into society if you do not live in or have access to a particular area.
“Any return to the area at this time is premature, and would have a significant negative impact on the victims.”
The board noted Muzzo has made gains through counselling in terms of his alcohol use, but the conditions remain in place.
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