Doveton mate-killer back behind bars for drug-fuelled car theft
A Narre Warren druggie with a 24-page rap sheet who killed his 17-year-old mate when he was 20 is still risking people’s lives.
South East
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A speeding junkie who killed his best mate in a horror crash is back behind bars after cops found him drugged up and slumped behind the wheel of a smashed-up stolen car.
Christophe Etienne spent nearly six years in prison for the culpable driving crash which also nearly killed his sister and another friend.
Now the Narre Warren 34-year-old is again in jail after another drug-fuelled thieving relapse.
In the 2006 crash that ended the life of his 17-year-old mate Etienne had been doing more than 50km/h over the limit when the car, which he had stolen from his mum, slammed into a power pole.
The devastating impact instantly killed his mate and left the other two occupants — one his own sister, the other the brother of the deceased — badly hurt.
The smash happened after he had tried to outrun police who had spotted him doing 126km/h on the Monash Freeway in Endeavour Hills.
He exited the freeway at Heatherton Rd before losing control at the intersection of Power and Kidds roads in Doveton, ploughing into a pole at an estimated speed of 103km/h.
In 2007 he was sentenced in the County Court to eight years’ and three months’ jail, and he served the minimum of five years and nine months.
Since then he has been in and out of prison for various drug and driving offending, racking up a massive 24-page long rap sheet.
Etienne pleaded guilty to burglary, car theft, going equipped to steal and drug charges at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The court heard police found him slumped behind the wheel of a car parked in Majid Drive, Narre Warren at 3am on November 4 this year.
The car had a smashed window, flat tyre and the ignition barrel had been wrecked.
Etienne was slurring his words and was badly substance-affected, and there was a small bag of ice and an empty bottle of GHB in the car.
Inside the vehicle there was also a tool bag containing a jemmy bar, bolt cutters and numerous car keys as well as a wallet and documents belonging to someone else.
Police discovered the car had been stolen in a burglary from a Rowville property earlier that night.
His defence lawyer said Etienne began using cannabis since the age of 16 and that led to harder drug use which he is struggling to overcome.
She said he was under stress that night and had relapsed, and was remorseful for his behaviour.
Magistrate Gerard Bryant said the drugs may explain the relapse but the burglary and car theft showed clear intent to commit more crimes.
“He appears to have a bag full of equipment used for burglaries and motor car theft offences,” Mr Bryant said
“He might have been substance-affected, but it didn’t affect his ability to break into a property and steal a car.”
Etienne was jailed for five months, minus 22 days he has already served, and disqualified from driving for six months.
