Elise Hodder, 24, was remembered in court for her love and enthusiasm for life.
The heartbroken family of a young model and lifeguard killed as a drunk driver tried to leave a rave have detailed their pain and rage to the man responsible.
Elise Hodder, 24, died after she was struck and became trapped under the Holden Commodore driven by Connor Mathiasson, 24, in the early hours of October 13 last year.
Mathiasson, a retail worker, was more than four times the legal limit when he attempted to exit the Sir Zelman Cowen car park in Kooyong, in Melbourne’s south east, about 1.06am.
The unlicensed driver accelerated heavily in reverse, striking Hodder and her friends, before crashing into a parked car. Two police officers witnessed the incident and arrested Mathiasson.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it,” he said.
More than 50 family and friends of Hodder attended the Victorian County Court on Friday for a pre-sentence hearing after Mathiasson pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing her death.
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of causing serious injury through negligent driving after Hodder’s friend, Emma Swords, 26, suffered two broken ankles in the crash.
The court was told Hodder, Swords and a few friends were out celebrating Swords’ birthday and had just arrived at the rave when the crash occurred.
Mathiasson, also out with friends, had been at the party since about 11.30pm, and had consumed pre-mixed Jack Daniels and Coke cans while driving there from Sunbury.
The court was told he’d been snapped by an overhead camera 25 to 30km/h above the speed limit on his way to the rave.
Analysis of his blood later the night recorded a blood alcohol concentration of 0.219% alongside cocaine and THC metabolites.
For much of the hearing, Mathiasson was seen with his head in his hands holding a bunched up tissue. At times, he was visibly red in the face and crying as Hodder’s loved ones spoke.
In emotionally charged and moving statements to the court, a dozen of Hodder’s family and friends laid bare the tragic impact of her death on their lives.
She was described as a vibrant and beautiful young woman, passionate and opinionated, with her whole life ahead of her before it was cruelly cut short.
“Elise’s death should never have happened, there is no mitigation. Her future was criminally stolen, along with ours,” her father Michael Hodder said.
“At 24 years of age she should have had decades of fun and laughter ahead. Put simply, there is no future.”
Her mother, Pauline Hodder, said her daughter was full of potential and zest for life, volunteering her effort into charitable causes and building a career in modelling.
“My daughter has been reduced to ashes in a box and I am heartbroken,” she said.
“What a violent, cruel ending for my gentle, loving girl.”
Through tears, Pauline Hodder said it was “unbearable” to learn her daughter had been trapped under the vehicle for hours.
Emma Swords said it terrified her to be in the same room as the man who took her best friend’s life and made her fear for her life.
She said Mathiasson had made an “incredibly selfish and reckless decision” that had left Hodder’s loved ones in ongoing hell.
“I hate that I survived this way… the devastation I feel is so profound I’ve tried for months to find the words and I just can’t,” she said.
“There was no warning when she died. There was no goodbye or last words, the woman with a million thoughts and opinions taken in an instant right beside me.”
Mathiasson’s barrister, Rishi Nathwani KC, told the court his client would “continue to live with the consequences of his actions” and remains deeply traumatised.
“We accept his actions were the causation of this horrendous tragedy,” he said.
The barrister said a significant term of imprisonment was inevitable.
He asked Judge Robyn Harper to find Mathiasson had expressed immediate remorse from the moment of the crash, reading out several remarks he made to police.
“I don’t care what happens to me, all I care about is what happens to that girl,” he said, quoting Mathiasson.
The barrister explained his client had planned to leave the vehicle in the carpark and move on to another party but made the “fatal, stupid decision” to take the car.
He told the court a forensic psychologist, Patrick Newton, had since assessed Mathiasson and formed the opinion he was self-medicating with alcohol to deal with the trauma of his mother’s death.
Prosecutor Neill Hutton SC, for the Crown, told the court that while they could not say how fast Mathiasson was driving, this was a high-speed crash at “incredibly high” levels of intoxication.
“Young male drivers are over-represented in killing people on our roads,” he said.
Hutton urged Judge Harper to reject Mathiasson’s claim he planned to leave the vehicle in the carpark and changed his mind soon before the crash.
Harper thanked the packed courtroom for the dignity and grace shown.
“Before we conclude I want to say to everyone that the sentence will be based on the law,” she said.
“The sentence is not going to be in any way a measure of Ms Hodder’s life or the value of it.”
She will sentence Mathiasson, who was remanded into custody, on November 10.
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