Carjacker was sorry, court hears

A young man who carjacked a woman's vehicle on New Year's wanted her to know he was "very aplogetic" for his actions when he surrendered to police, his lawyer told Ontario Court Justice Romuald Kwolek Monday.

Nicholas Burns, 19, pleaded guilty to four offences stemming from the Jan.1 incident and will return to court June 22 for sentencing.

He was convicted of forcible confinement, assault, threatening bodily harm and mischief.

"From the get go" after he turned himself in, Burns wanted to get a message to the woman, through the police, "that he was very apologetic," defence counsel Michael Bennett said.

"He wants her to know she wasn't targetted. He didn't know who she was," Bennett said, adding the court will hear later how drunk his client was at the time.

When he was arrested, Burns asked if he could write a letter of apology to the complainant, the lawyer said.

"He did write it, but whether or not it was delivered (by police) I don't know.”

Kwolek heard the woman was traveling along Wellington Street East after driving her fiancé home from a New Year's party.

She was near St. Mary's College when a man ran out and got into the car, saying he wanted her to drive him home.

The woman asked him to please leave, prosecutor David Kirk said.

She indicated he was nice to her at first, but started touching her arm and when she told him to stop, he threatened to bang her head against the steering wheel, the assistant Crown attorney said.

Burns then told her didn't trust her and ordered her to get out of the vehicle.

She flagged down a car and police were contacted, Kirk said.

The victim's fiancé had just installed a dash cam in the vehicle and Burns was identified through the video.

Kirk said the accused and the woman were "totally" unknown to each other. 

Kwolek adjourned sentencing at Bennett's request so that a pre-sentence report can be prepared.

Kirk concurred with the request, noting Burns has no criminal record.

"These are very egregious facts from the driver's point of view," the Crown said.

"We want a pre-sentence report to see what is going on with this young man."

Previous SooToday coverage of this story:

Arrest made in alleged carjacking

Police looking for New Year's carjacking suspect

(PHOTO: A still image taken from video released by CrimeStoppers shows the New Year's Eve incident)