A Vancouver Island man has pleaded guilty to one of four charges he is facing in the August 2019 hit-and-run death of thirty-two-year-old Spencer Alexander Moore in Parksville.
The BC Prosecution Service confirmed Ryan John Grob entered a guilty plea to impaired driving causing death in Nanaimo court on Friday.
Grob, 35, and another man were arrested and charged last October, more than one year after Moore was struck and left to die in the middle of the road.
Moore’s family members expressed relief at the plea knowing some form of justice will be served, but said they’re still frustrated that it took this long for Grob to take responsibility.
“They could have come forward at any point with some sort of admission of guilt and sympathy for what they have done,” Moore’s brother Brandon said.
Instead, he said, the family has endured a nightmare for the last year and a half.
“We are devastated with Spencer’s loss but this process has been soul testing to say the least,” Brandon told Global News in a statement.
“Not a day has passed that this is not the first thing I think about and the last as I go to sleep.”
Moore’s body was discovered in the 200-block of Hirst Avenue in Parksville in the early hours of Aug. 24, 2019.
Hours after the deadly hit-and-run collision, Oceanside RCMP seized a black 1999 Ford F-250 with a lift kit.
Grob was also charged with dangerous driving causing death, failing to stop at the scene of a collision resulting in death, and willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by giving a false statement to police in connection with the fatal collision.
His alleged passenger, 31-year-old Travis Zackery Taylor, is accused of willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by giving a false statement to police.
Grob’s matter has been adjourned to Apr. 6 to fix a date for sentencing.
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