By Spencer Sterritt

Wahpeton woman who killed boyfriend while driving drunk to serve over three years

Sep 23, 2016 | 5:00 PM

It’s been three years since the incident and it will be over three years more in jail for a Wahpeton women who struck and killed her boyfriend when she drove drunk.

Valerie Standing, 30, appeared at Prince Albert’s Court of Queen’s Bench today, Sept. 23. Included in her three and a half year jail sentence for causing the death of Brant Fox is a five-year driving ban.

Standing pleaded guilty to the charge on the first day of her trial on June 13, 2016. Other charges, such as second-degree murder and criminal negligence, were stayed by the Crown.

Before sentencing, the court and families in attendance heard how Fox, the father of her child, found himself trapped under the front wheels of Standing’s car.

In the early morning of April 10, 2013 Standing and Fox were at a party in the Wahpeton Dakota Nation. Fox left after a fight and an intoxicated Standing followed in her car. There were no witnesses to the incident, but responders found Fox trapped under Standing’s car.

Riderville

Riders Have Options Heading into Tuesday CFL Draft

4h ago

Weekend hockey

PAGC set to host largest Senator's Cup tournament to date

4h ago

VAISAKHI MELA

Hundreds flocking to P.A. for Vaisakhi Mela celebration

4h ago

The coroner listed his death as mechanical asphyxiation due to the compression of the car on top of him.

According to Standing’s lawyer Peter Abrametz, she doesn’t remember how Fox ended up under her car due to her heavy intoxication at the time.

Judge Grant M. Currie said even though Standing’s situation is different from someone driving impaired down a highway and taking a life, and she was at a low risk to re-offend, her sentence would be similar to other drinking and driving causing death sentences.

Currie said he understood the sentence would keep her away from her family and young child, but added “Mr. Fox will be away from his friends and family for the rest of his life.”

While reading her victim impact statement, Fox’s mother Shannon Standing accused Valerie of taking Fox’s life purposefully.

“Why would you do this Val?” she asked as her voice cracked. “You’ll pay for this.”

Outside court after sentencing Shannon said she waited three years for closure as the case made its way through court.

“I gotta learn to forgive her now, so we can heal as a family,” she said as she began to cry.

She and her family said they didn’t feel the sentence was harsh enough to deter others from drinking and driving.

“I’m telling my children their brother is gone. It doesn’t matter if she gets 10 years, he’s still not coming back. I want her to suffer,” she said.

The Fox and Standing families are densely entwined in the small community of Wahpeton Dakota Nation.

Shannon said the families can work to come together and heal with the sentencing behind them.

“We have to get along, we all live in the same community, I work with Val’s dad. They have to learn to live without their daughter for three years. I have to learn to live without my son until I’m gone,” she said.

ssterritt@panow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit