The son of former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Tobin has pleaded guilty to a charge of impaired driving causing death.
"I know I am responsible for what's happened. I want to do the right thing for everyone," Tobin told police, according to a statement of facts filed in court.
"I drank, I drove, now someone's dead. He was a good friend."
Accompanied by his mother and father, 24-four-year-old John "Jack" Tobin made the plea at a brief hearing in an Ottawa courtroom Tuesday morning. He faces a maximum of life in prison when he is sentenced on August 4.
But impaired driving causing death does not come with a minimum sentence, so the range of options given to the judge is wide -- anything from community service to house arrest could be handed down.
The Crown is seeking "substantial" jail time.
Tobin also faced two other charges -- dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, and driving over the legal limit resulting in a death -- in connection with a collision that left his friend Alex Zolpis dead in 2010.
Both those charges were dropped.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Tobin and Zolpis were among a group seven people who had been drinking at a pub in Ottawa's trendy Byward Market area last Christmas Eve.
When the bar closed at approximately 2 a.m., they walked to the multi-storey garage where the rented pickup truck was parked and continued drinking a bottle of whiskey.
Tobin then decided to drive the pickup to the top of the parking garage to do some doughnuts on the ice-slicked surface with his friends in the truck with him.
Finally, one girl in the truck screamed at Tobin, saying she was terrified and told him to stop. They got out and found one man underneath the car.
Although the group pulled him out, relieved to discover he was okay, Zolpis was discovered trapped under the truck a short while later, his clothes caught in the drive shaft.
No one in the group was sure of how Zolpis, 24, had wound up there.
They tried to free him, "panicking and screaming for someone to give them a knife," the statement of facts said.
Police arrived at the fifth-floor of the Vinci Market Garage at approximately 3 a.m. to discover Zolpis still pinned under the Dodge Ram pickup.
Emergency crews managed to free him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Tobin told the police he had had only one drink before stopping hours earlier. But when he blew a breathalyzer at the police station a short while later, his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
Tobin was also spotted tossing a bottle of whiskey off the top of the parking garage.
Tobin made a statement to police at the time conceding he was responsible and expressing his desire "to do the right thing for everyone."
Tobin's lawyer Norman Boxall said the facts speak for themselves, and that his client had long intended to plead guilty.
"It just took a little bit of time, because of the nature of the investigation, to do it. But he wanted to accept his responsibility and spare everyone involved -- particularly the friends and family of Alex," Boxall told reporters outside of the courthouse.
When asked how his client is coping with the legal proceedings, Boxall chose his words carefully.
"The description of how he felt then and the fact he's pleading guilty and accepting responsibility without any witnesses being called at a very early date speaks for itself."
Tobin and Zolpis were longtime friends who attended high school and university together.
The parents of Zolpis gave CTV Ottawa a statement.
"We are just mourning for the life of our boy," his mother, Susan Morgan said. "At the moment we're just trying to survive and it's been a very terrible time."
As part of conditions of the $100,000 bail on which he was released on Christmas Day, Tobin must abstain from alcohol and reside with his parents in Ottawa.
With files from CTV's Roger Smith in Ottawa
