Police at the scene of the car crash on Adelaide Avenue on 17 April 2024. Photo: ACT Policing.
The getaway driver who fled the scene of a fatal crash, leaving behind a 15-year-old boy who died due to his injuries, has been sentenced to jail.
Jayden Michael Chauveau, 22, was handed a total of three years and three months’ jail with a 21-month non-parole period by the ACT Supreme Court late last year, according to a decision published this week.
On 17 April 2024, a stolen Toyota Camry reached 131 km/h on Adelaide Avenue in Yarralumla just before it crashed, rolled and ended up on its roof in the middle of the road.
One of the passengers, a 15-year-old boy, was ejected from the car in the crash and landed on the road.
The court has previously heard how the Camry had been travelling with another stolen car, a Genesis GV80 SUV, driven by Chauveau, which reached 127 km/h before the crash.
Both the Camry’s alleged driver, who legally cannot be named and passenger Jack Dennis Summerrell-Jenkins managed to crawl out of the destroyed vehicle and get into the Genesis.
Summerell-Jenkins told Chauveau the 15-year-old was lying on the road before a young female passenger in the Genesis got out of the car, but the others screamed at her to get back in.
Chauveau drove the others away from the scene and later to a park in Theodore where he set the Genesis on fire.
He pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to culpable driving causing grievous bodily harm, arson and driving a stolen vehicle.
His lawyers said he drove the alleged driver from the Camry away from the scene in a decision made on the spur of the moment in highly stressful circumstances.
“I accept that your profoundly disadvantaged upbringing has left you with impaired decision-making capacity and that that is directly relevant to your committing the offence of accessory on that night,” Acting Justice Patricia Kelly said.
She also said he set the $130,000 Genesis on fire to try and avoid responsibility for his involvement in the theft of the vehicle as well as the offence of driving it.
“While I acknowledge that the vehicle was set on fire in the middle of a paddock away from other houses and people, nevertheless the lighting of a fire deliberately anywhere in this country is an intrinsically dangerous act which could have led to much greater damage,” Acting Justice Kelly said.
The judge said she would order that he be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence until a further order of the court.
“I do not consider you have the capacity, the maturity or the commonsense to be allowed behind the wheel of a vehicle,” she said.
With time served, he will be eligible to apply for parole in February 2027.
Summerell-Jenkins, who is Chauveau’s cousin, was also handed a jail sentence when he faced court over his role in the incident last year.
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