While Debb Beer’s family poured out their hearts, Joshua Biernacki put his hands over his face and sobbed.
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“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Debb or talk about Debb, especially with (Beer’s daughter). We often find ourselves watching old videos and looking at pictures,” Beer’s mother Cindy said in her victim impact statement she read at Biernacki’s sentencing for drug trafficking.
“Debb was stubborn. She was much more than that – she was a loving caring daughter, sister and friend. Most of all Debb was the most amazing mom and loved that little girl.”
Biernacki, 32, needed a few moments to compose himself after those words and that of Beer’s sister Pam, who said her sister was “the best mom” to a little girl who was just three and in the same bedroom when her mother died of a heroin overdose on Nov. 6, 2021.
“She was happy and healthy for her (daughter), but this horrible disease never truly leaves the person who’s battling. Josh, I truly believe you know this because you’ve been on both sides.”
Biernacki, who was acquitted of manslaughter but found guilty of drug trafficking in connection to Beer’s death, is an addict himself and has never been able to be totally clean since Beer died.
They had a complicated relationship and at one time were boyfriend and girlfriend. That changed after Beer became pregnant and moved from Oshawa to London and appeared to get clean and get a job.
But at the trial where Biernacki was acquitted of homicide, it was discovered through the hundreds of text messages back and forth, that he had mailed her heroin in the days leading up to her death, although it wasn’t clear if it was those drugs or a combination of those and others that killed her.
“It’s just that I’m terribly sorry to the family. I never meant for this to happen,” Biernacki said to Superior Court Justice Michael Carnegie.
“I loved her with all my heart. I think of her every day. I’ve been in and out of psych wards for almost four years and I don’t know what else I can say other that I feel terrible about this situation.”
His defence lawyer Sevag Yeghoyan said Biernacki has struggled all his life with addiction and has never been able to shake it. He advocated for a 12-to-18 month conditional sentence that would include residential treatment and three years of probation
Assistant Crown attorney Roger Dietrich argued that Biernacki should be jailed for two years, followed by three years of probation. He pointed out that even though he knew of Beer’s longtime struggle with heroin, he still sent her some drugs.
“That is the most aggravating factor,” he told Carnegie, adding that there is “complicated grief” for Biernacki and Beer’s family.
Beer’s mother says what they have been through has been “an emotional roller-coaster.
“I not only lost my daughter. I was grandma helping her granddaughter. It was (expletive) hell.”
Both she and Beer’s sister worry for the little girl who was with Beer when she died and often says, “I wish my Mommy was here. “
Carnegioe reserved his decision until later this spring.
jsims@postmedia. com