‘We want to see justice’: Family and friends attend court date for fatal triple drunk driving suspect – B.C.
Emotions were running high outside Invermere Law Courts on Monday, as family members and friends of three young men killed in an alleged drink-driving crash awaited the first court appearance of the suspect charged in their deaths.
Haley Jade Watson, who turns 23 this year, is charged with three counts of reckless driving causing death and three counts of dangerous driving causing death in the July 9, 2024 collision in British Columbia’s Columbia Valley.
“I really needed to see Hailey and I think she needed to see us and the grief she caused so many people, friends and family,” Janet Dahl Freeman said.
Dal Freeman’s son, 25-year-old Jackson Freeman, Gavin Murray, 21, and Brady Tardif, 25, died when the truck they were traveling in went off the highway and fell onto an embankment on Westside Road near Panorama Drive in Wilmer, B.C. .
Police allege speed and intoxication were contributing factors. Photos obtained by Global News show the Toyota Tundra was a flattened, mangled wreck when it arrived at the tow lot.
The suspect survived but was initially taken to hospital with what RCMP believed were “serious, non-life-threatening injuries.”
“What you did to this community and families — no parent should ever go through that,” Dal Freeman told Global News in an interview Monday.
Get breaking national news
For news affecting Canada and around the world, sign up to get breaking news alerts delivered to you right as they happen.
The tragedy has devastated Columbia Valley and Sherwood Park, where one of the three young victims lived.
Dozens of friends and community members attended to support the victims’ families outside the courtroom.
“It was important to everyone as a family, as an extended family,” said his friend Quentin Nicholas. “We are not all family but it seems we are with the tragedy.”
“It was a very big blow to all the friends because we were together for about four days a week,” Gage Martin told Global News.
“All the time,” Nicholas added.
Martin remembers fishing, hunting and playing golf with Tardif, whom he considered a brother, and Murray, who he grew up playing hockey with.
“You don’t realize how short this time is until it’s over,” Martin said.
Martin said Murray leaves behind two sisters who will carry on his “legacy” while Tardif’s fiancée and young son will keep his memory alive.
Dahl Freeman said her son, who fulfilled his dream of earning the Red Seal in Carpentry, was very kind and compassionate.
“If people asked him for help, he was always there,” Dal Freeman recalled. “He was a special person.”
Freeman excelled at lacrosse and played for Pewee, Bantam and Midget A clubs with the Sherwood Park Titans before being recruited by Junior A St. Louis.
The Giants organization has since established a memorial scholarship in his name, recognizing not only his accomplishments as a goalie — but also his development off the field, his mother said.
According to Sherwood Park Titans websiteThe Jackson Freeman Memorial Award will honor a graduate student who will go the extra mile to help those in need and spread kindness with their positive energy in all aspects of life. “This was Jackson’s mission in life. Please make it yours.”
Watson arrived outside the courthouse on January 13 in an SUV driven by another woman, but he never entered the building.
Instead, the car remained parked for several minutes and the mayor was seen speaking to its occupants.
The Public Prosecution Service in British Columbia said that a lawyer came to court to represent the accused, who was not present in the courtroom.
The woman who drove Watson to court walked away from the crowd before pinning her SUV in the snow-covered parking lot. The sheriff jumped out to get the car out.
Watson is scheduled to appear in court on February 10. Court records indicate he applied for an injunction.
“We want to see justice,” Nicholas told Global News. “We want to see that they did not die for no reason.”
&Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
