Drunk driver faces victim's family in B.C. court

It was an emotionally exhausting day for the family of Kassandra Kaulius as the sentencing hearing began for a woman whospleaded guilty for the drunken crash that killed the 22-year-old Kaulius in May 2011.

"My daughter was a really, really special girl and she shouldn't have been taken in this type of crime," said Makita Kaulius, the victims mother.

Her father left court at one point, struggling to catch his breath.

"I have a good idea of what happened that night. But I don't want to hear it," Victor Kaulius said. "I can't listen to the details."

Kassandra Kaulius was on her way home from a softball game in Surrey on May 3, 2011, when a commercial van being driven by Natasha Warren ran a red light at more than 100 kilometres per hour and hit Kaulius at an intersection.

Hid in bushes

Warren, then 34, fled the scene and was later found by police hiding in bushes near the crash scene.

The Crown said Warren had consumed a bottle and a half of wine that night and blew twice the legal limit of .08 blood alcohol when tested by police.

Warren, who pleaded guilty in July to dangerous driving causing death, failing to remain at the scene of a crash and impaired driving causing death, faced the Kaulius family in court Monday, as half a dozen victim impact statements were read.

"You left my daughter to die in the street," Makita Kaulius told Warren, after holding up the ripped softball team shirt her daughter died in. "You took away her hopes, her dreams and her future."

The Crown prosecutor said he will ask the court to sentence Warren to three and a half years in prison.

The hearing continues Tuesday.