A late dispute about agreed facts has been partly responsible for delaying the sentencing of a man over a crash at Salamander Bay that killed two of his workmates.
Adam Anthony Bortic pleaded guilty last April to two counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death in relation to the incident a year earlier that killed Queensland man Jamie Ward, 34, and Estonian national Lauri Juerman, 29.
The pair were in the car with Bortic, who was under the influence of alcohol and had cannabis in his system, when it crashed into a tree off Soliders Point Road in the early hours of April 13, 2018.
The matter was due for sentencing before Judge Roy Ellis in Newcastle District Court on Friday.
But Judge Ellis granted an adjournment after the court heard that the Crown mounted a late dispute over some elements of the draft agreed facts of the case.
Judge Ellis also said that given restrictions at NSW prisons related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a ban on visitors, he was trying to delay handing down custodial sentences for three months in some matters where the guilty person had a relatively clean prior criminal record and had not previously been in full-time custody.
He adjourned Bortic's matter to be part heard next Wednesday.
"These are tragic cases," Judge Ellis said.
"The lives of the family members of the deceased are ruined and the lives of the family members of the person who is of otherwise good character are ruined."
Bortic's defence argued against the adjournment, saying a delay in sentencing was "a cruel dagger above his head for a time uncertain".
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