Barrie man convicted of running over ex-best friend in jealous rage

A Barrie man who drove his truck into his best friend in a fit of jealousy faces a sentencing hearing Dec. 4.

Isidoro Pacheco pleaded guilty Sept. 14 to dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

The court heard Pacheco had suspected his wife and friend were having an affair during the summer of 2018. 

On Sept. 18, Pacheco’s pickup truck struck his estranged friend while he was helping his wife pack up her belongings on Pacheco’s driveway.

The court heard Pacheco’s truck jumped the curb as he returned home early from work at about 11:30 a.m. to see his ex-friend carrying “something” from the house.

“At about that same moment, his truck veered left, jumped the curb and drove diagonally across a driveway, a boulevard, a sidewalk, and his next-door-neighbour’s front lawn,” a court document states. “It struck (the victim), causing him to fly through the air and make a hard landing, face down, some distance away.”

Although Pacheco pleaded guilty, he testified that he did not intend to run over his former friend.  

Pacheco told the court he lost control of his truck when he stuck his head out the window to get a better look at the “person” he saw at his front door.

But Justice Cary Boswell ruled the evidence showed the crash was intentional.

“I do not believe or accept Mr. Pacheco’s version of events leading up to the collision,” Boswell said in a written decision. “Indeed, I consider his account impossible to accept.”

After the collision, Pacheco’s wife knelt beside the victim and said, “Oh my God, you’ve killed (him).”

When Barrie police officers arrived, they found Pacheco hiding under a pool cover in the backyard holding a steak knife. He was arrested without incident.

Barrie police were also at Pacheco’s home the night before the crash, when officers told him to stop throwing his wife’s belongings onto the front lawn.

The case resumes Dec. 4 in Barrie Superior Court of Justice.