Man who struck homeless woman with truck in Brossard acquitted of assault charges, sentenced to 21 months

The man who struck a homeless woman with his truck on Montreal’s South Shore before driving away was acquitted of the two most serious assault charges on Wednesday. He pled guilty to three of the lesser charges against him.

Luigi Fragomele, 46, ran over and injured 44-year-old Caroline Derome in Brossard on May 27. Longueuil police said he acted deliberately.

At the courthouse Wednesday, Fragomele pled guilty to dangerous driving causing bodily harm, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, and mischief under $5,000. He was acquitted of assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.

He has been sentenced to 21 months in prison, including time already spent in detention, followed by three years of supervised probation.

“I’m pretty glad with the decision that the judge took. I think it’s fair,” Derome told CityNews.

“The fact that there’s gonna be like something after — the jail — not only like just the jail, there’s just gonna be more and this person will be taken charge.”

The Crown described the events of the day in court, saying Fragomele “didn’t stop even though he had caused injuries in an accident” and that he struck Derome’s encampment.

Derome suffered a broken leg and says she had to spend three days in the emergency room following the incident, paying about $1,000 out of pocket for medical treatment. She told the court she still experiences pain and flashbacks and has trouble being near loud vehicles.

“I will probably have some consequences that will stay for sure,” she said.

“We’re not going back to how I was before all of this. This is for sure. So I have to struggle with a bit of pain and to deal with the fact that I will not be able to walk as much as I was used to.”

In July, a psychiatric assessment from the Philippe-Pinel Institute concluded Fragomele was fit to stand trial and could be held criminally responsible. It revealed Fragomele had previously stopped talking about his mental health and had been living with undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric conditions that contributed to his actions that day.

“He had stopped talking about mental health himself a few years ago. So we understood that he had psychiatric diagnoses, which we didn’t know before this assessment,” said a Crown prosecutor.

Fragomele is now expected to undergo close psychiatric monitoring and anger management therapy during his probation, measures the Crown said were necessary to prevent another similar incident.

The accused was denied bail in June after a judge determined he was considered a danger to the public, describing the alleged assault as “hate” against a marginalized group.

Surveillance footage played during a June bail hearing showed Fragomele leaving the scene in his truck after the incident, although the moment of impact was not captured. Witnesses told the court they saw the truck repeatedly ram into a homeless encampment.

Fragomele’s defence had argued that his truck’s brakes were faulty, but the judge said a vehicle inspection showed the brakes were working properly. They also argued he had not intended to hurt Derome — something she herself echoed.

“His purpose was really to destroy our encampment. He wanted us to not stay there, this is for sure,” said Derome.

The defence argued Fragomele never tried to deliberately hurt Derome.

–With files from Zach Cheung and Gareth Madoc-Jones