Shikera Stauffer tries her best to retain her last happy family memory.
It is August 3, 2024, and a pregnant Ms Stauffer is with her partner, Tyler Ingersoll, young son Tate and their dogs by the water in Stockton.
"Tyler played on the park with Tate and ran beside him on his little bike for over an hour," Ms Stauffer recalled on Tuesday.
"They both laughed and smiled with their matching infectious grins.
"I try and memorise the vision of them running towards me.
"They were both healthy and happy, and I try to remember that happiness that we all felt because it was all ripped away from us two days later."
A photograph, taken that day, immortalising that moment, was shown on the screens in a packed Newcastle District Court on Tuesday.
And with another picture of her smiling partner next to her, Ms Stauffer spent the better part of an hour delivering a deeply emotional victim impact statement as part of the sentence hearing for the man who destroyed their family, truck driver Jonathan Fusi.
"You hit us with your truck and you ripped apart our lives together," Ms Stauffer said.
"This is a life sentence for me and the kids.
"You have destroyed my life, when all I was doing was coming home from seeing our baby with the person I love most in the world."
Ms Stauffer said Fusi would never understand what he had done to their "happy little family".
"The day you hit us, you stole Tyler's life and destroyed Tate, Saskia, and my life," she said.
"In my eyes, you're a monster, and you have blood on your hands, and it will stay there forever.
"You stole him from us in the most traumatic and catastrophic way.
"My kids did not deserve this.
"I did not deserve this.
"And most importantly, Tyler did not deserve this.
"He loses the most."
Other family members spoke too, including Mr Ingersoll's mother, brother, sister and his sister-in-law, in what was a huge outpouring of grief.
Their statements showed he was not just a name but a father, partner, son, brother, friend and much more. They sought to show exactly what Fusi had taken away.
Fusi, now 36, was suspended from driving and had methamphetamine and amphetamine in his system when he set off from Farley to Heatherbrae on the afternoon of August 5, 2024.
He was tired after working all day on little sleep and his fatigue would have been exacerbated by withdrawing from ice, an expert said.
Fusi's Isuzu light rigid truck crossed to the wrong side of Cessnock Road at Gillieston Heights and struck Mr Ingersoll's Nissan Patrol as he and Ms Stauffer returned from her 20-week pregnancy ultrasound.
Mr Ingersoll tried to take evasive action by braking and veering to the left, but the railing did not leave enough room and his car was pushed sideways into the barrier.
Paramedics and police rushed to the crash site, but he tragically died at the scene.
Fusi's truck kept going on the wrong side of the road before coming to rest 65 metres away.
He was freed from the wreckage and taken to John Hunter Hospital, where he had his leg amputated and underwent testing that showed he had drugs in his system.
As well as hearing from Mr Ingersoll's family members, Tuesday's sentence hearing was expected to determine whether Fusi was aware of his licence suspension and whether he used an old screenshot of his digital driver's licence to obtain his employment.
However, prosecutors and defence lawyers came to an agreed position that while Fusi was suspended, it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt that he knew.
Judge Tim Gartelmann, SC, said he would await a Court of Criminal Appeal decision into the guideline judgment for dangerous driving occasioning death in NSW before delivering sentence.
The matter was adjourned until next week to set a date for a further sentence hearing.
