The sentencing hearing for Cory Sater, the man found guilty in January of killing two women in a hit-and-run collision in 2011, has been postponed a month.
Sater was initially scheduled to appear in New Westminster Supreme Court on March 31, a hearing that has been adjourned until April 28 at the request of the defence counsel.
"They needed to accommodate defence counsel's schedule," said Neil MacKenzie, a public relations manager with the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch. "There were some unforeseen matters that have affected his schedule."
Sater was found guilty in January following a lengthy trial on charges of dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving causing death. Earlier in the proceedings he pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.
The Coquitlam man was behind the wheel of a white Jeep Cherokee when it struck and killed Charlene Reaveley and Lorraine Cruz in February 2011. A third victim, Paulo Calimbahin, lost his leg in the incident.
In his decision, Justice James Williams agreed with Crown Counsel's assertions that Sater had consumed six double rye and Cokes and two Jagerbombs prior to getting behind the wheel.
A driver that was not impaired, the judge stated, would have been able to see the two women on the road and safely negotiate the hazard.
Reaveley and her friends had stopped to assist Cruz and Calimbahin, who had been in a minor car accident on the side of Lougheed Highway at Pitt River Road. While Reaveley was comforting Cruz, both women were struck and killed.
