A motorist who killed five people after speeding through Victoria has been in custody for five and a half years.
Christopher Joannidis, 31, was sentenced in the Melbourne County Court on Thursday to a minimum three-year prison term after pleading guilty to causing Victoria's worst road tragedy in more than a decade.
Joannidis was stopped by police and fined for speeding just three minutes before causing the catastrophic head-on collision in the northern Victorian town of Strathmerton in 2023.
Joannidis, who pleaded guilty to five counts of dangerous driving causing death, killed four foreign workers, a mother and her dog after failing to yield at the Murray Valley Hwy and Labuan Rd intersection on April 20, 2023.
Joannidis ignored traffic warnings, rubbish lanes and give way signs before crashing his Mercedes-Benz C180 into a Nissan Navara, causing the vehicle to spin and into the path of an oncoming Kenworth milk tanker.
The Navara was crushed and all five occupants of Debbie Markey, 62, her dog and internationals Pin-Yu Wang, Hsin-Yu Chen, Wai-Yan Lam and Zih-Yao Chen, were killed instantly.
Joannidis' former partner, Eleanor Theeboo, was traveling with him to a wedding in NSW and she survived the collision.
Milk tanker driver Andrew McClusky was injured in the collision.
Christopher Dillon Joannidis (left) pleaded guilty to five counts of dangerous driving causing death
Australian mother Debbie Markey was killed instantly in the crash. She is pictured next to her son
Joannidis had been intercepted by Victoria Police highway patrol officers shortly before the horror crash and issued a ticket for driving at 118km/h in a 100km/h zone.
The court heard Joannidis, a former barista, told police he thought the speed limit was 70mph.
Police had also warned Joannidis about the “horrific tolls that have been levied in the region in recent times.”
Joannidis drove away, but barely a minute later the same police who stopped Joannidis heard 'on the radio' that a collision had occurred between a truck and two cars and went to the scene.
Joannidis' wrecked Mercedes C180
Joannidis shortly after his arrest
Defense lawyer Paul Smallwood previously told the court that Joannidis' offending had “catastrophic” consequences and caused “immeasurable” human suffering.
Mr Smallwood said Joannidis, who attended Donvale Christian College in Melbourne's east, was full of “self-loathing that may never leave him”.
“He has deep regret and remorse over the horrific incident,” Mr Smallwood said.
“The entire Joannidis family is shocked and distraught.”
Judge Gavan Meredith said “anyone paying attention” would have noticed the warning signs before the intersection.
Mr Smallwood called a psychiatrist who told the court that Joannidis' obsessive-compulsive disorder and “clinical depression” would make his time in custody “tougher”.
“Prison for him will be very different than prison for someone without this condition,” he told the court Thursday morning.
But prosecutor Daniel Porceddu argued that if Joannidis were to take antidepressants and antipsychotics – which he had refused – it could help control his OCD.
“The person who has made captivity harder is the prisoner himself,” he said.
Judge Meredith ruled that a prison sentence was the only sentence he could impose for the “horrific” crash, given the seriousness of Joannidis' offending.
However, he also took into account the driver's remorse, good rehabilitation prospects and the impact his mental health had on his time behind bars.
The judge imposed a maximum prison sentence of five years and six months on Joannidis.
Joannidis, who has already served 59 days of his sentence, will be eligible for parole after serving at least three years of his sentence.
Several victim statements have previously been read to the court.
Zih-Yao Chen's mother Wang Chia Chen “cries every day” as a result of her son's death, the court heard.
She now suffers from insomnia and cannot get the “horrific image of her son's body being dismembered” out of her head.
Pin-Yu Wang's single mother, Yi-Chuan Chiu, was devastated by the loss of her daughter, and her victim impact statement spoke of her love for cooking.
“Losing Pin-Yu has been unbearable and I now cry and live in pain every day,” her statement read.
Hsin-Yu Chen's father Chun-an Chen said his family would never be the same after the loss of their daughter.
Ms Markey's son, Daniel Montero, told the court how he visited the scene of the accident and found his mother's glasses and driver's license scattered on the ground.
“I decided to do something nice for my mother that night and made a picture frame of friends and family and hung it in the place,” Mr. Montero said.
“I felt pain I never thought was possible.”
Before her death, Ms. Markey had renovated her home to accommodate foreign workers and cook and entertain them.
“She was in many ways their mother in Australia,” Montero told the court.
“Her last act in this world was an act of kindness.”
McClusky was in shock for months after the collision, he told the court.
“My first thought was that I was responsible for the deaths of a number of people,” McClusky told the court.
'I can't help but think how much worse the situation could have been if the truck turned right into oncoming traffic. There could have been more deaths or serious injuries.”
Mr. McClusky visited the accident scene a year after the collision and planned to go every year to pay respects to the victims.
The court heard McClusky has been diagnosed with PTSD and suffers from 'constant flashbacks'.
In any case, Mr McClusky was not at fault for the collision, the court heard.
