House arrest for impaired driver who fled collision

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This article was published 30/05/2025 (309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon judge sentenced a man to six months of house arrest on Thursday after he fled the scene of a collision he caused while driving impaired.

“I don’t buy for a second that you didn’t understand the seriousness of the matter or that you didn’t know what to do,” Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta told the accused in provincial court. “I can see that you panicked and ran from the scene, but what you did was cowardly.”

Crown attorney Ron Toews said Johnson Aijotan, 26, claimed he has remorse for his actions, but that wasn’t his attitude on the date of the offence.

Toews said Aijotan told his probation officer he went to his friend’s house in Brandon for lunch on June 29, 2024, and took two shots of gin.

When driving at 7:30 p.m., Aijotan blew through a stop sign and collided with another car. He got out of his car and had a brief interaction with some bystanders before he fled the scene. Multiple people told him to stay; when he left, they followed him, Toews said.

No one was injured in the collision.

To get away, he drove into an open bay at the Canadian Tire garage, where mechanics and other individuals were working, Toews said. He got out of his car and left without speaking to anyone.

Aijotan was unco-operative when police tried to conduct a breath test. Toews said he later made it a personal issue, claiming the police put his handcuffs on too tight.

In Aijotan’s pre-sentence report, he told the probation officer he was in shock and didn’t know what to do. He said he wasn’t trying to escape but only wanted to fix his car.

“That, I would suggest, is bordering on an absurd explanation,” Toews said. “He was either in shock, or he was trying to get his car fixed, according to himself. I would suggest that the two of those explanations are incompatible.”

“If his attitude is that ‘I want to get my car fixed,’ his car was of a higher priority in his mind at that time, according to his own explanation, than the safety of the people that were involved in that collision,” he said.

Toews suggested Aijotan receive a 90-day conditional sentence for each charge of driving impaired and fleeing the scene of a motor vehicle accident.

Damilola Olu-Aderounmu, an articling student who worked under defence lawyer Anthony Dawson in the case, said that since the collision, Aijotan has made some life changes, including changing his circle of friends and volunteering at his church.

Aijotan also told her that since the incident he stopped drinking alcohol altogether.

She said Aijotan came to Canada in 2023 and is a temporary resident. He acknowledges he will likely face deportation once this matter is dealt with.

“He did not know what to do, but he’s been made to understand that ignorance of the law is no excuse,” she said.

The defence suggested he receive a three-month conditional sentence.

When Hewitt-Michta gave Aijotan a chance to speak, he apologized and reiterated that he was in shock at the time of the incident.

“I’m not that type of person,” he said. “I realize what I have done is bad. I have to pay a lot of money.”

Hewitt-Michta acknowledged that Aijotan pleaded guilty to the charges, but said he has been disingenuous, specifically pointing out his inability to be honest with the probation officer who wrote his pre-sentence report.

“You shake your head all you want. I don’t believe you,” the judge said.

“I think that (Aijotan) should probably see the inside of a real jail cell because of the seriousness of this matter, but I respect the recommendations that have been made.”

» sanderson@brandonsun.com