Marcella Zoia, A 20-year-old woman who tossed a chair off a downtown Toronto balcony over a busy highway last year has been sentenced to two years of probation, a $2K fine and 150 hours of community service.
Justice Mara Greene delivered the ruling after months of deliberation during a teleconference Tuesday afternoon with Zoia, her lawyer Greg Leslie, and Crown prosecutor Heather Keating.
“Given the serious potential for harm in this case, and the public nature of this event, there is a strong need to deter others,” said Greene while reading her ruling. “It is my view that engaging in dangerous acts to gain notoriety is unacceptable.”
“Having said that she was only 19 at the time of the offence,” said Greene, who noted that Zoia had recently attended a one-day alcohol abuse program. “Rehabilitation can not be ignored.”
Greene also noted that, while Zoia’s actions were clearly deliberate (“she made a show for the camera,”) the young woman has since shown “some insight” and taken responsibility for her actions.
Still, given the importance of the principles deterrence and denunciation in her sentence, and the fact that Zoia only managed not to kill someone out of “sheer luck,” Greene found that some kind of “punitive sentence” was necessary.
