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Penner Criminally Charged, Asks Forgiveness From Victim’s Family
posted (June 27, 2017)
On Friday night, Elvin Penner knocked down and killed 41 year-old Unitedville resident Kenrick Myvett, while trying to overtake another vehicle on the George Price Highway.

Well, this afternoon, he was arraigned at the San Ignacio Magistrate's Court on the criminal charges of manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, and driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention.

After his arraignment, Penner granted the entire press an interview, something which he certainly hasn't done after his tumble from grace in 2013. Daniel Ortiz takes a look at his day in court:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
This afternoon, after being back and forth to the Police Station this morning, Elvin Penner was taken before the Magistrate sitting in the San Ignacio Court.

He's now facing 3 traffic offenses for the death Kenrick Myvette, the most serious of which is Manslaughter by negligence. On last Friday night, he was trying to overtake a minivan, but he instead, he slammed head-on into Myvette, who was heading home on a motorcycle.

Unlike his arraignment in March of 2014, when COLA charged him for Immigration Offenses, Penner wasn't flanked by an army of supporters. Another key difference today was that he was far more indulgent with the press, choosing to comment, instead of dodging:

Reporter
"Sir, but, any comments on what happened?"

Elvin Penner - Charged with Manslaughter
"I'll make a statement when I come back out."

And after signing his bail documents, Penner kept his word, starting by apologizing publicly to the Myvette family who is grieving back in Uniteville.

Elvin Penner - Charged with Manslaughter
"I would like to express my very sincere condolences to the family of the deceased. I could not be more saddened by the fact that a person has died, a family has lost their loved one, a beautiful young girl is left without a father, a common-law wife is left without a husband and I can only imagine what they are going through. It's been a tough time for me and my family as well. It's something I would have never ever dreamt of could have happened to me, but only God knows why things happen."

"Like I told them before if I could get my hands on a million dollars today and bring back the life of their loved one, I would do that. But unfortunately that's what how life goes. I know they are preparing to bury their loved one. I've been there whenever I am able to assist with them with whatever I am able to assist them with."

So, to the incident itself. Here's how it happened from his perspective

Elvin Penner - Charged with Manslaughter
"I remember coming from work Friday late. I was working late that day. Again, I normally don't work that late and my wife would tell me well if you had come home earlier it wouldn't have happened. But perhaps if I had come home earlier something else would have happen. It could have been worse. So you never know, so we don't try to understand at this point in time. But I came home from work Friday late, I check my time and exactly at 6:56 is when I called 911. It was on a straight stretch in front on Running W where you can see clearly all the way to Esperanza and the vehicle in front of me was traveling fairly slowly, so I remember looking ahead, didn't see anything coming and proceeded to overtake and I did not see the cycle coming from the front until it was just feet in front of me and the only instinct I had at the time was to do whatever I could to miss the cycle and I swerve the vehicle immediately to the right hitting the vehicle beside me, because we all know that someone in a vehicle is much safer than someone on a bike. So the idea was to hit the other vehicle in the process trying to avoid the cycle. But unfortunately there was not enough space and the cycle still clip in front of the vehicle and hence the incident happened."

"Like I said a lot of people believe what they want to believe. They might not want to believe me, but I honestly did not see the cycle coming. I've spoken to the 2 witnesses in the other vehicle that I hit in the process, both of them didn't see the cycle coming either."

Reporter
"The lights were on?"

Elvin Penner - Charged with Manslaughter
"I cannot say there was no lights on, all I can say is that we didn't see the cycle. Because I don't want to speculate at this point in time, because like I said the family needs to be taken care of and at this point in time all indications are that being that I overtook, it's my responsibility and it will stay that way for now. But really and truly I still don't know why I didn't see the cycle coming."

Reporter
"So you are accepting guilt that you did? I'm sorry sir, because you are saying that you accept responsibility because the fact that you were overtaking that vehicle and the cyclist basically came into you because you couldn't avoid hitting him. So you're saying it happened that way and yes your vehicle colliding into the cycle caused the death of this guy."

Elvin Penner - Charged with Manslaughter
"In terms of the legal charges they normally give you are based on traffic laws…so based on the traffic laws, yes indeed the guilt will be on my part. But in terms of the negligence or purposefully doing something or overseeing something or doing something wrong, I don't see how because I really did not see the cycle coming."

The court will decide if indeed he should face any penalties for the accident, but Penner says he is hoping that the Myvette family will recover from the pain of loss.

Elvin Penner - Charged with Manslaughter
"At the point of the accident instinct kicked in right away, the first thing was call 911 which I did hoping that the ambulance would come together with the police. Realizing after a while the San Ignacio ambulance wouldn't come, I then quickly call the Spanish Lookout ambulance, and they did come in fairly short time. Of course at that time being shocked but at the same time optimistic, the young man Mr. Myvette was responding well to questions and conversations that we had with him while he was on the ground, so I was very optimistic that he was going to make it, but like I said only the good Lord above knows why he allows things to happen the way they happen and I just have to have faith in God that he will provide the family with strength."

No plea was taken from him, and he was released on bail of $5,000.

The case was adjourned until October 27.

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