A terminally ill Kamloops man who raped his wife while she was recovering from C-section surgery will spend six months on house arrest.

The 29-year-old cannot be named under a publication ban imposed to protect the identity of his victim.

Court heard he approached his wife on Dec. 19, 2016, while she was resting in bed with the couple’s newborn son. She had undergone caesarean surgery a month earlier and was under orders from her doctor to not have sex.

“[He] attempted to impose himself upon her,” Kamloops provincial court Judge Stella Frame said Tuesday in handing down her sentence. “When she protested and told him to stop, he insisted that he was going to take what is his.”

The attack stopped when the victim struck her husband.

The incident was not reported to police until almost three weeks later, when Mounties interviewed the victim after her husband admitted to a psychiatrist he was having homicidal thoughts about his wife and their baby.

“It appears the only reason [he] was charged with this offence is because [his wife] was interviewed by police after [he] made homicidal comments directed toward her and the child,” Frame said.

The couple has since separated. Court heard the victim has regular nightmares and has been undergoing counselling since the incident.

The man was diagnosed in the spring of 2016 with a rare and deadly brain disease. His father attempted to have him admitted to Royal Inland Hospital for depression three times in the months leading up to the sexual assault. He was admitted in January 2017 and released the following month.

Court heard the man has minimized his role in the incident and focused instead on his illness, something Frame called “an astonishing lack of insight.”

Frame said it is important to send a clear signal that relationships do not carry implicit consent.

“The message must be sent that partners are not property,” she said. “When a partner says no, the answer is absolutely no.”

In addition to the house arrest, the man must also register as a sex offender for 10 years and surrender a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.

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A murder charge has been laid against a Logan Lake man accused of stabbing an acquaintance to death in a motel in the community of 2,000 southwest of Kamloops.

Cpl. Dan Moskaluk of the RCMP’s major-crimes unit in Kelowna said emergency personnel were called to the Copper Valley Motel, 19 Apex Dr., just after 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday for a report of an unresponsive man inside a suite.

Efforts to revive 55-year-old David James Fast were unsuccessful.

Gordon James Fleming, 66, was arrested at the motel and is charged with second-degree murder. Fleming had been scheduled to make his first appearance in Kamloops provincial court on Wednesday, but that has been pushed to April 9 to give him time to speak with his lawyer.

Investigators believe Fleming and Fast, who is also from Logan Lake, were known to each other.

The investigation is ongoing and Fleming remains in custody.

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Mounties have confirmed reports from KTW and other media regarding the cause of death in the first recorded homicide in Logan Lake.

Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said police and the BC Coroners Service have determined that 55-year-old David James Fast died as a result of being stabbed. Fast was attacked and killed on March 6 in a room at the Copper Valley Motel in the town of 2,000 45 minutes southwest of Kamloops.

Gordon Fleming of Logan Lake has been charged with second-degree murder and is scheduled to next appear in court in Kamloops on April 9.

Logan Lake Robin Smith told KTW the death is believed to be the first in the town’s history.

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The man accused of killing a Kamloops teenager in a 2016 hit-and-run crash on a residential street near her family’s Aberdeen home is expected to agree to a plea deal, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has been told — something the teen’s father said would be “a great relief.”

Jason Gourlay, 43, is charged with failure to stop at the scene of an accident and attempting to obstruct justice in connection with the death of Jennifer Gatey, a South Kamloops secondary student one day shy of her 17th birthday.

Gatey died on Nov. 4, 2016, after being struck by a vehicle on Pacific Way south of Aberdeen Drive, just behind her family’s home. She was walking to catch a bus to the Tournament Capital Centre for a workout.

A Jeep belonging to Gourlay was identified early in the investigation as potentially having been involved in the incident. The vehicle was seized four days after the crash and has been in the care of police since.

In court on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Neil Flanagan said he and defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen are very close to an agreement for a guilty plea, but are still ironing out the details.

“My friend and I have been engaged in resolution discussions for several weeks and we are both, I think, as confident as we can be that this matter is going to be resolved,” Flanagan said, noting he expects “certainty” by the end of the week.

Cameron Gatey, Jennifer’s father, said the family is looking forward to closure — hopefully sooner than later.

“If there is in fact a guilty plea deal, it will be a great relief to our family,” he said. “It’s been a terribly troubling 18 months and one of the issues has been the fact no one has taken responsibility for the situation that has been created. To know that someone may be admitting guilt would bring some resolution.”

Gatey said he has been “dreading” the thought of sitting through Gourlay’s potential trial.

“It disturbs me greatly,” he said. “If it’s resolved with a conclusion where someone admits guilt, that would be a relief.”

Lawyers will return to court Friday to update B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley on their progress.

If a deal is not reached, a voir dire dealing with the admissibility of the Jeep as evidence is slated to begin later this month.

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The sister of a Kamloops man slain in a Valleyview motel suite two years ago says her family feels relieved now that her brother’s killer has been found guilty — and could potentially serve an indefinite length of time behind bars.

More than 30 people crowded into a Kamloops courtroom on Tuesday to hear that verdict read to Gordon Camille, 67, who was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the 2016 stabbing death of 49-year-old Dennis Adolph.

“It is relief,” said Carol Finney, Adolph’s sister, who attended most of Camille’s trial, which began in late January. “I can’t believe it is over.”

Adolph was found dead on Jan. 26, 2016, in the 4 Seasons Motel suite he shared with Camille.

The two men were related through marriage, court heard, and it was Camille who alerted motel staff to Adolph’s injuries on the morning of his death.

Camille co-operated with police following the incident, but was arrested 10 days later.

He admitted under questioning from investigators to having been responsible for Adolph’s death, but that admission was ruled inadmissible by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes last month.

In Holmes’ reasons for that decision, she mentioned Camille’s vulnerability and his apparent “acquiescence in what appeared to be an unavoidable process and an inevitable result.”

The Crown proceeded with an entirely circumstantial case including Adolph and Camille’s DNA on a knife, grainy video surveillance footage and the testimony of a forensic pathologist.

Defence lawyer Ken Walker suggested Adolph could have been stabbed outside the room. One video surveillance clip appeared to show Adolph walking wounded back to the room he shared with Camille.

Walker also asked Holmes to consider whether Adolph might have injured himself, whether by accident or intentionally.

Adolph died of blood loss, having been stabbed once in the abdomen.

Court heard his blood-alcohol level at the time of his death was .40 — five times the legal limit to drive and potentially deadly on its own, according to the doctor who performed Adolph’s autopsy.

“The body of evidence established beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Camille was the only person in the room with Mr. Adolph when he was stabbed and died,” Holmes said.

“Accidental or deliberate self-harm is not a reasonable inference. The only reasonable inference is that Mr. Camille stabbed Mr. Adolph.”

Holmes ordered Camille to undergo an assessment to determine whether the Crown proceeds with a dangerous offender application — a sentencing proceeding that could see him jailed indefinitely.

Camille has a violent criminal record, including another manslaughter conviction in 1984. In that instance, he drunkenly shot his spouse while she sat in an outhouse, then confessed to a neighbour and, later, to police.

He has also served jail time for two separate stabbings in Kamloops — one in 1998 and the other in 2008 — as well as a 1994 stomping incident. Each of the offences, as well as Adolph’s slaying, involved alcohol use.

Camille’s dangerous-offender assessment will be completed within 60 days. He is scheduled to return to court on May 14.

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Jason Gourlay will plead guilty in connection with the Nov. 4, 2016, hit-and-run that killed Kamloops teenager Jennifer Gatey.

Gourlay did not appear in Kamloops Law Courts on Friday afternoon — after appearing in the morning — but his lawyer, Jeremy Jensen, and Crown prosecutor Neil Flanagan told court they have reached an agreement for Gourlay to plead guilty, a date for which will be set on March 26.

Gourlay, 43, is charged with failure to stop at the scene of an accident and attempting to obstruct justice, though it remains to be seen to which charge or charges he will plead guilty. The maximum sentence for failure to stop at the scene of an accident when a death is involved is life in prison.

Gourlay remains out of custody.

Jennifer Gatey was struck and killed alongside Pacific Way on Nov. 4, 2016, while waiting for a bus. The 16-year-old lived with her family in a home less than a block away from the bus stop. She was killed a day before her 17th birthday.

The driver of the vehicle that struck her did not stop and drove away. Police soon released video from a home-surveillance system in the area showing what appeared to be a dark-coloured Jeep-style vehicle in the area at about the time Gatey was killed.

During the next two days, Nov. 5 and Nov. 6, 2016, police received a tip and descended on a home in Dufferin, across Highway 1 from Aberdeen. There, police strung yellow tape around the yard and covered the front half of a black Jeep with a tarp as they examined the vehicle. There was what appeared to minor damage to the driver’s side front end of the vehicle.

Police then seized the Jeep and forensic evidence was collected.

Gourley was arrested and charged on March 3, 2017.

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A Kamloops police officer charged with assault stemming from an alleged on-duty incident last summer is scheduled to return to court next month to fix a date for trial.

RCMP Const. Todd Henderson was charged in December with assault causing bodily harm. The allegation dates to Aug. 25, but no further details have been made public.

Henderson’s trial date was scheduled to be set last week before his defence lawyer was granted an adjournment.

It is now slated to be set on April 12.

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A Lower Mainland man who in 2016 deliberately walked into the path of a train near his Kamloops motel days after shooting a gangster to death in Maple Ridge has been sentenced to serve more than six years in prison.

Deane Sahantovitch, 56, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was ordered to spend six and a half years behind bars.

Sahantovich shot and killed Jonathan Patko on Sept. 24, 2016. He and three others then fled the Lower Mainland, travelling first to Alberta before  spending three nights in Kamloops.

Court heard Sahantovich was attempting to kill himself on Sept. 30, 2016, when he left his suite at the Ranchland Motel in Valleyview and walked across the Trans-Canada Highway and onto CP Rail tracks.

CP Rail video played in court showed Sahantovich stepping out of the bushes and into a train’s path. The locomotive was travelling about 13 km/h when it struck Sahantovich.

He was taken to hospital with injuries described at the time by police as serious.

Once he is given credit for time served before trial, Sahantovich has about four-and-a-half years remaining on his sentence. He was also ordered to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.

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Shuswap man who ran airborne drug smuggling ring pleads guilty in U.S. court

A Canadian man who ran a helicopter-based drug-smuggling ring years before Washington state legalized marijuana has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge after fighting his extradition to the U.S. for much of the past decade.
Colin Hugh Martin, formerly of Malakwa, east of Kamloops, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Thursday.
He faces five to 40 years in prison, though the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it would recommend no more than 10 years when he is sentenced in June.

The 46-year-old father of six admitted he headed a drug ring that flew marijuana and MDMA, or ecstasy, south into Washington state and exchanged it for cocaine, which was then flown north into Canada. One of his pilots, Sam Lindsay-Brown, took his own life after flying into a law-enforcement trap in 2009, when federal agents met him when he landed in a remote clearing in northeastern Washington state.

Martin, 46, left school in eighth grade to go to work as a logger. In a 2009 interview, he told the Associated Press he became involved in the drug trade after he saw his best friend killed in a logging accident and the local salvage timber industry collapsed.

Martin first came to the attention of American authorities in the late 1990s, when he was indicted in federal court in Spokane for a drug smuggling operation that relied on airplanes. Martin never responded to those charges and was never extradited, but he was convicted in Canada based on the same conduct and sentenced in 2007 to 2.5 years in prison.
While he appealed, Martin continued smuggling by leasing or buying helicopters through a company called Gorge Timber.

It’s unclear how much the organization transported, but authorities seized more than 100 kilograms of cocaine and nearly 270 kilograms of marijuana.

“This organization has been responsible for a much larger amount of drugs than what we were able to seize,” former U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said.
Martin was indicted in 2009 in Seattle, along with five other people.
The Supreme Court of Canada rejected his arguments against extradition in December.

Washington state legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2012. Sales at state-licensed stores began in 2014 and now top US$500 million a year.

— Canadian Press

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A five-day preliminary inquiry will be scheduled next month for the suspect in the alleged 2014 murder of a fellow inmate at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre.

Dylan Levi Judd, 20, was found dead in his cell at KRCC on Nov. 10, 2014. His death was initially believed to have been non-criminal, but that changed nearly a year later, when police re-opened the case.

Nathaniel Jessup was charged in February with second-degree murder in connection with Judd’s death. Jessup, 30, was arrested at the conclusion of an unrelated 40-month prison sentence.

Preliminary inquiries are hearings at which a judge is tasked with deciding whether the Crown has enough evidence to proceed to trial in B.C. Supreme Court.

A date for Jessup’s preliminary inquiry is expected to be set on April 9. He remains in custody.

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The victor in a scheduled fist fight outside a North Shore elementary school last fall won’t have a criminal record if he stays out of trouble for nine months.

Cross Jordan Auger, 19, pleaded guilty in Kamloops provincial court on Monday to assault causing bodily harm.

Court heard Auger and another young man were involved in a dispute over an alleged $40 debt when both agreed to settle the matter physically.

Crown prosecutor Chris Balison said a fight was scheduled for the evening of Sept. 14, 2017, and word quickly spread.

“It becomes a bit of a spectacle,” Balison said. “Friends of both showed up at a school on the North Shore — A.E. Perry elementary school — just before 9 p.m.”

Balison described a video recording of the fight, captured on the cellphone of one of the attendees and later turned over to police. He said Auger was much larger than his opponent.

“Very quickly, [the victim] begins to lose the fight and falls to the ground,” Balison said. “It’s at this point Mr. Auger continues to assault [the victim] while he’s on the ground.”

Balison said the video shows the victim convulsing before the fight was called off. The victim was taken by his mother to hospital and diagnosed with a concussion.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Chris Cleaveley urged Auger, who has no previous criminal record, to make better decisions.

“In the future if you’re faced with a situation like this, a physical altercation, it’s my expectation you walk away from it,” he said.

Cleaveley gave Auger a conditional discharge and nine months of probation, meaning his record will remain clean if he completes his probation without incident.

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The anticipated guilty plea of a Kamloops man alleged to have struck and killed a teenager in a hit-and-run crash on an Aberdeen residential street in 2016 has been delayed.

Jason Gourlay had been scheduled to plead guilty during an appearance in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday. Instead, lawyers adjourned the matter for a week to fix a date for Gourlay’s guilty plea.

Defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen told court during an appearance on March 16 that his client would plead guilty. Gourlay’s trial had been scheduled to begin with evidence hearings on Monday, but those dates were cancelled when he decided to plead guilty.

Gourlay, 43, is charged with failure to stop at the scene of an accident and attempting to obstruct justice in relation to the death of Jennifer Gatey, a South Kamloops secondary student one day shy of her 17th birthday.

Gatey died on Nov. 4, 2016, after being struck by a vehicle on Pacific Way south of Aberdeen Drive, just behind her family’s home. She was walking to catch a bus to the Tournament Capital Centre for a workout.

A Jeep belonging to Gourlay was identified early in the investigation as potentially having been involved in the incident. The vehicle was seized four days after the crash and has been in the care of police since.

Cameron Gatey, Jennifer’s father, told KTW earlier this month that the family is looking forward to closure — hopefully sooner than later.

“If there is in fact a guilty plea deal, it will be a great relief to our family,” he said.

“It’s been a terribly troubling 18 months and one of the issues has been the fact no one has taken responsibility for the situation that has been created. To know that someone may be admitting guilt would bring some resolution.”

Lawyers will return to court on Tuesday, April 3, to fix a date for Gourlay’s guilty plea. He remains free on bail.

“We are doing our best and we’re looking for dates in April, May or June.”  Crown prosecutor Neil Flanagan said, noting the plea will be entered on the day of sentencing.

This black Jeep found at a home in Dufferin was seized on Nov. 8, 2016, as part of an RCMP investigation into a hit-and-run collision that killed 16-year-old Jennifer Gatey.
KTW file photo

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Lawyers representing the City of Salmon Arm were in a Kamloops courtroom on Wednesday, arguing before a three-judge panel from B.C.’s highest court, urging it to overturn a decision that allowed a woman to sue the municipality for liability after she tripped over a broken street sign.

Cindy Binette suffered undisclosed injuries on March 16, 2013, after tripping over the base of a damaged sign near the corner of Second Street and Fifth Avenue in downtown Salmon Arm.

Last year, following a hearing in Kelowna, a B.C. Supreme Court justice weighed the evidence and allowed Binette’s liability claim to proceed to trial.

The City of Salmon Arm appealed that decision and, on Wednesday, urged a three-judge B.C. Court of Appeal panel to reverse it, arguing a number of errors were made — including “errors of fact or speculative inferences” made by the B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gary Weatherill.

Lawyer Brent Olthuis, representing the municipality, said the judge jumped to conclusions about the state of the damaged sign and its base.

Olthuis also said no one complained about the damaged sign before Binette fell.

“The city at no time received notice of a hazard on the sidewalk,” he said. “At no time did somebody contact the city and say, ‘Hey, I noticed something at Second Street and Fifth Avenue.”

A date for a decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal has not been set. The court is sitting in Kamloops for three days this week.

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A front-desk clerk at a downtown Kamloops motel took the witness stand in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday, describing in detail an armed robbery last year that saw a masked gunman make off with about $90.

Cole Patterson-Coulter, 22, is standing trial on charges of robbery, unlawful confinement, disguise with intent and using an imitation firearm.

Police descended on the Howard Johnson Inn, 530 Columbia St., at about 10:15 p.m. on April 10, 2017, after motel employee Randall Stewart called 911.

In court on Tuesday, Stewart described what happened and talked B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley through video surveillance of the incident.

Stewart said he was working the front desk when he heard someone enter the motel.

“It was somebody wearing black, head to toe, with a ski mask,” Stewart said, adding the masked man was holding a handgun. “He pointed the gun at my face. It was pretty obvious what was going on and I pointed out to him where the register was.”

Stewart said the robber grabbed the money from the till — $50 in toonies and about $40 worth of five-dollar bills.

“He told me to go to the back,” Stewart said. “As he was taking me, he said, ‘I don’t like doing this.'”

Stewart said the gunman tied his hands with a telephone cord before fleeing through a back door. Court heard Stewart freed himself and called 911.

A man wearing clothes and carrying a backpack similar to that worn and carried by the gunman was seen on surveillance footage at Royal Inland Hospital — across the street from the motel — moments before the robbery, court heard. Crown prosecutor Alex Janse said the man on the video at the hospital matched Patterson-Coulter’s description.

Hospital surveillance footage also shows the man returning to RIH after the robbery, court heard.

Patterson-Coulter took the stand in his own defence, claiming to have switched clothes with a drug dealer named Ben before and after the robbery took place.

A date for Dley’s verdict has not been set.

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The alibi of the suspect in the armed robbery of a Kamloops motel last spring “simply makes no sense,” a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Thursday, finding Cole Patterson-Coulter guilty as charged.

The 22-year-old was arrested in connection with a holdup at the Howard Johnson Inn on Columbia Street and charged with robbery, unlawful confinement, disguise with intent and use of an imitation firearm.

The motel’s front-desk clerk told court an armed man dressed in all black, his face masked, entered the lobby at about 10:15 p.m. on April 10, 2017, demanding cash.

“He pointed the gun at my face,” Randall Stewart testified. “It was pretty obvious what was going on and I pointed out to him where the register was.”

Stewart said the robber grabbed about $90 from the till before ordering him to a back room. Court heard Stewart’s hands were tied with a phone cord and the robber fled through a back door.

Patterson-Coulter took the stand in his own defence, telling court he lent his clothes to a drug dealer named Ben moments before the robbery.

Patterson-Coulter was staying at Royal Inland Hospital at the time, receiving treatment for a shoulder injury, and video surveillance at RIH shows him tying a scarf around his face while leaving a few minutes before the robbery.

Patterson-Coulter said he had been prescribed opiates by doctors at RIH and began using heroin when the prescription ran out.

He claimed Ben offered him $20 for the use of his clothes, money he later used to buy drugs.

Patterson-Coulter’s clothes on RIH surveillance match what was captured by video cameras at the motel.

“The court is being asked to accept the notion that Mr. Patterson-Coulter bypassed the motel, walked to Ben’s house and exchanged clothes with him, all within a span of eight minutes,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley said.

“While it might be possible that all of it occurred in eight minutes, I conclude it is highly unlikely.”

Dley found Patterson-Coulter guilty on all counts. Lawyers will return to court on April 9 to set a date for sentencing. He remains free on bail.

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A former Kamloops resident was disappointed, his lawyer said, to learn he was unsuccessful in his attempt to sue a 10-year-old girl after he jogged into her bicycle.

Rosario Perilli alleged the child was riding her bike “recklessly” when she veered into his path as he tried to pass her while out for a jog on a sunny August afternoon four years ago, causing him to fall and injure his shoulder.

However, in a judgment this week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice S. Dev Dley dismissed Perilli’s claim, found the young girl was not liable for the accident and ordered Perrilli to pay costs.
Perilli, a man in his 40s who now lives in Ontario, was unhappy to learn of the result, said Frank Scordo, the lawyer representing him.

“He thought she had cut him off and that she was responsible for his injuries.”
Scordo said while he was not criticizing the judge, the decision hinged on the question of what standard of care is reasonable to expect of a child. The judge basically said you can’t impose the same standard of care on a 10-year-old as you can on an adult. But funnily enough, there’s many cases where a 10-year-old has been found to be contributorily negligent,” Scordo said.
“It’s not so much the age as the maturity level of the kid and, in this case, we had evidence that the girl was very mature for her age.”

In his reasons for decision, Dley described the young defendant as a “polite and mature young person, who listened to the questions attentively” during her cross-examination in court, and “was not defensive about her evidence.”

Perilli’s claim alleged the cyclist, 10 at the time of the 2014 incident, was cycling recklessly and without due care and attention. His claim also named the young girl’s grandparents,“on the basis they did not properly instruct her in the safe operation of a bicycle.”

But Dley concluded that neither the young girl nor her grandparents were liable.
“I find that [she] was paying proper attention to her surroundings and to others who were using the roadway,” Dley said in the judgment. “I conclude that she acted with due care and attention and did not conduct herself in a manner that imperilled others or was the cause of Mr. Perilli’s damages.”

While Perilli had alleged the child cut him off as he tried to run around her, the judge did “not accept that it was a sudden or dangerous manoeuvre,” saying that “at most [she] was simply repositioning herself within her own lane of travel.”

Scordo said neither he nor his client was concerned about the public perception of suing a 10-year-old and her grandparents, noting they ensured the defendants had insurance coverage before filing the claim.
“We weren’t trying to squeeze a 10-year-old out of her piggy bank,” Scordo said.

— Dan Fumano, Vancouver Sun

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Charges have been laid in connection with a stabbing in downtown Kamloops last week.

Jordan Nicol, 25, is in custody facing charges of assault with a weapon and aggravated assault stemming from a March 28 incident outside Sandman Centre.

At the time, police said a victim was found near Sandman Centre with apparent stab wounds. He was not co-operative with investigators and was taken to hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Nicol is scheduled to appear in Kamloops provincial court for a bail hearing on Monday, April 16.

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A 75-year-old Logan Lake man was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 months in prison two years after a technician found child pornography while repairing his computer.

Thomas William Sturmey pleaded guilty on March 20 to possession of child pornography, but asked for his sentencing to be delayed to Tuesday to allow him time to tie up financial loose ends before heading to prison.

Court heard a repairman contacted police after finding images on Sturmey’s computer while servicing the machine in 2016. Mounties then obtained a warrant for Sturmey’s Logan Lake home and seized 264 CDs, 26 of which were found to contain images of child pornography.

Sturmey, who walks with a cane, is suffering from medical issues, court heard, and has had three strokes.

In addition to the jail time, Sturmey will be bound by a two-year probation period once he is released, including terms requiring him to abstain from pornography and take counselling.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Roy Dickey also placed Sturmey on an order prohibiting him for 10 years from visiting any park, pool, school or day care where children might be present, holding a position of authority over children and accessing the internet.

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A man accused of killing a Kamloops teenager in a hit-and-run crash in 2016 could plead guilty and receive a sentence as soon as next week, lawyers said Tuesday.

Jason Gourlay is expected to plead guilty on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Depending on the judge’s decision, he could be sentenced immediately.

Gourlay, 43, is charged with failure to stop at the scene of an accident and obstructing justice in relation to the death of Jennifer Gatey, a South Kamloops secondary student who died one day shy of her 17th birthday.

Gatey died on Nov. 4, 2016, after being struck by a vehicle on Pacific Way south of Aberdeen Drive, just behind her family’s home.

A Jeep belonging to Gourlay was seized four days after the crash and has been in the care of police since.

Cameron Gatey, Jennifer’s father, told KTW last month that the family is looking forward to closure — hopefully sooner than later.

“If there is in fact a guilty plea deal, it will be a great relief to our family,” he said. “It’s been a terribly troubling 18 months and one of the issues has been the fact no one has taken responsibility for the situation that has been created. To know that someone may be admitting guilt would bring some resolution.”

Lawyers will return to court on Monday, April 9, to find out when Gourlay’s hearing will take place.

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The suspect in the murder of a 55-year-old Logan Lake man is scheduled to return to court for a bail hearing next week.

Gordon James Fleming, 66, is facing one charge of second-degree murder in connection with the death of David James Fast.

Police were called to the Copper Valley Motel just after 6:30 a.m. on March 1 and found an unresponsive man inside a suite. Efforts to revive Fast were unsuccessful.

Fleming was arrested at the motel and has been in custody since. Investigators have said Fleming and Fast were known to each other.

Fleming is slated to return to court on Monday, April 9, for a bail hearing.

The investigation into Fast’s death is ongoing.

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