By Sarah McPhee
The squeals of two young brothers were captured on phone videos as they travelled in a speeding car before it crashed in Sydney’s south, killing them and leaving a scene described by a judge as “sheer, utter destruction”.
Driver Jimmy Martin Brito reached speeds of more than 140km/h during the six-minute street race which ended on The Grand Parade in Monterey when he lost control of his blue Subaru WRX and slammed into a tree in August 2023.
Two of his passengers, brothers aged nine and 10, died. The boys were still dressed in their school uniforms when their bodies were identified by their family in the Sydney Children’s Hospital.
Brito’s third passenger, a nine-year-old girl, survived. She told police he had been “racing” and “going too fast” after the children had played together that night on the rocks at La Perouse.
“I could not describe in words just the sheer, utter destruction of that motor vehicle,” Judge John Pickering said on Thursday. “It is, in some ways, a miracle that only two people died in the collision, as horrendous as that clearly is.”
Videos were tendered to the NSW District Court of the minutes before the horror crash, which the judge said had been “uniquely, and somewhat shockingly for the viewer”, filmed on a phone by the 10-year-old boy who had been seated behind Brito. During the short clips, squeals can be heard as the car swerves through traffic at speed.
The aftermath of the crash at Monterey.Credit: Nine News
The judge said it was impossible to know whether the squeals were of excitement or some degree of fear, and the children “had no concept of the danger and reality that they’d been put into by Mr Brito”.
“They could not possibly understand … the risk of driving at such high speed, in a reckless fashion as part of a car race [or] show-off event,” Pickering said.
“I, in no way, am going to remotely mitigate this matter on any question of whether they were excited or squealed out at any time.”
One video briefly caught the speedometer of Brito’s Subaru “travelling over 140 km/h” in an 80 km/h zone, according to the agreed facts.
A police officer determined Brito was driving at no less than 136 km/h in the 60 km/h zone when he was captured on CCTV about 200 metres from the crash site.
The last video, taken at 9.48pm and lasting nine seconds, captured the final moments before the car left the road.
Driver ‘abandoned responsibility’
Brito, 35, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of manslaughter by criminal negligence and one count of causing bodily harm by misconduct. An offence of organising or promoting a street race was also taken into account.
Pickering jailed Brito for a maximum of 11 years and six months with a non-parole period of eight years.
Brito was jailed for a maximum of 11 years and six months.Credit: Rocco Fazzari
The judge said Brito “really, truly abandoned responsibility as a driver” and drove in an irresponsible and “show-off” manner, treating the vehicle as “some sort of plaything or thrill”.
“He must have known that his degree of driving was so poor, and that inevitably the people most at risk were three young persons,” Pickering said.
The area was well-known to have families walking around and numerous vehicles, particularly on a Friday night, the judge said.
“This was not an ad hoc street race in a country town or a road outside Sydney. It was an ad hoc street race in truly one of the most busiest areas of Sydney.”
There was no evidence Brito had been affected by drugs or alcohol, Pickering said.
Crash scene left family in ‘disbelief’
The boys’ father and stepmother, in a victim impact statement read to the court last month, said the children had been “robbed” of their future.
The couple had heard emergency service vehicles that night before they got a call that changed their lives forever.
When they saw the crash site, “it was clear why they had not survived”, the stepmother said. “The state of the vehicle made us gasp and cover our mouths in disbelief.”
She said they now visited the cemetery every weekend.
Brito received a 35 per cent discount on his sentence: 25 per cent for his guilty pleas, and 10 per cent for assistance offered in the future trial of the other driver.
Brito has been in custody since the crash. Due to time served, he will first be eligible for parole in August 2031.
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