Two men the Crown alleges ran a sophisticated cocaine ring in Kamloops are scheduled to go on trial in February, including on a charge they committed a crime on behalf of a criminal organization.

Richard Crawford and Steven Currie each face charges of committing an offence on behalf of a criminal organization and intent to commit an indictable offence. Due to the complexity of obtaining a conviction, the criminal-organization charge is seldom prosecuted.

When Kamloops Mounties first announced two years ago they had brought down a dial-a-dope operation in the city through an undercover operation, they said it had links to the United Nations gang.

All the other people charged in the drug ring have since pleaded guilty. What were termed five “employees” of the drug ring — drug couriers who met with clients at locations throughout the city — were given conditional sentences.

Cocaine wholesaler Jean Claude Auger was given a four-year term in jail. When police busted his home, they found $140,000 in cash hidden in a wall, as well as more than a kilogram of cocaine and a cutting agent used to dilute the drug.

The Crown alleges Currie and Crawford were at the top of the network operating in Kamloops in 2012.

The two-week trial is scheduled to begin on Feb. 15. A hearing is scheduled in November to determine whether some Crown evidence will be entered in the trial.

A Kamloops man who fought a sheriff, threatened to kill a Crown witness and bit a corrections officer in the forearm will spend the next 12 months behind bars.

Matthew Hein pleaded guilty to three charges — two counts of assaulting a peace officer and one of attempting to pervert justice — in Kamloops provincial court on Thursday.

The 28-year-old has been in custody on unrelated matters since last year.

Court heard he was at the Kamloops Law Courts for an appearance on March 16. Seated in the courtroom gallery was a witness on a robbery charge Hein was facing.

“When Mr. Hein came into the prisoner’s box, he looked directly at [the witness] and drew his thumb across his throat,” Crown prosecutor Kurt Froelick said.

“This was witnessed by the Crown prosecutor and numerous other people in the courtroom.”

Later the same day, sheriffs entered Hein’s cell in the courthouse basement to shackle him for another court appearance.

Froelick said Hein refused to be shackled.

“He yelled, ‘Let’s go,’” Froelick said. “Mr. Hein then took a fighting stance and clenched his fists.”

Froelick said a sheriff then punched Hein in the head. Hein responded by throwing numerous punches at the sheriff. He was eventually restrained and taken to court.

On April 25, Hein was being housed in Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre’s segregation unit following an incident the previous day. Corrections officers arrived at his cell and asked if they could come in to shackle him to take him to receive his diabetes medication.

Hein said the officers could come in, but he began to resist when they started to shackle him.

“There was a struggle during which Mr. Hein bit the right forearm of [a corrections officer],” Froelick said. “Mr. Hein did not release his bite until corrections officers pepper sprayed him.”

Court heard the corrections officer was left bleeding and later received treatment at Royal Inland Hospital and missed 30 days of work due to the injury.

Hein has a criminal history that includes 61 convictions dating back to 2002.

Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate turned to metaphor in his submissions.

“Mr. Hein is someone who the bark is much worse than his bite,” he said.

“There is, of course, one occasion here when a bite took place.”

Provincial court Judge Maryland McKimm had harsh words for Hein.

“When you attack people who protect the justice system, you suffer a much more serious consequence because the justice system is there to protect you,” he said.

Once he is released from prison, Hein will serve 18 months of probation.

A judge has given a psychiatrist another month to finish a report on a Kamloops mother charged with murder in connection to the 2011 death of her newborn son.

Courtney Fawn Saul did not appear in court on Monday as lawyers asked for more time for the report to be completed.

Saul, 23, was charged earlier this year with murder following an investigation into the Dec. 15, 2011, death of her son, George Carlos Saul.

The Crown alleges the baby was killed “a few hours” after birth.

Last month, a judge ordered a psychiatric assessment for Saul, who is not in custody.

Lawyers hoped to have the report completed by this week, but that was not the case.

Saul is due back in court on Dec. 3, at which time it is anticipated the completed report can be read by a judge.

Cheryl William died in an April 25, 2013, house fire at a home on St. Paul Street in downtown Kamloops.

Now that jurors have begun their deliberations in the manslaughter trial of a Kamloops man accused of setting a fatal house fire in 2013, KTW can tell you about some of the things that happened in their absence.

David Gordon’s trial began last month in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops. He is accused of starting a fire in his downtown home on April 25, 2013, that killed Cheryl William, who was at the house as a guest.

On Oct. 15, the first day of Gordon’s trial, eight family and friends of William showed up in white T-shirts with pictures of the victim’s face and the words “Justice for Cheryl.”

Defence lawyer Ken Tessovitch argued that the T-shirts would have a prejudicial impact on jurors. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop agreed, barring the William supporters from wearing the T-shirts anywhere on the grounds of the Kamloops Law Courts.

Near the end of the Crown’s case, prosecutor Neil Flanagan called an expert witness to testify about how the fire burned and patterns in burn marks.

Tessovitch took issue with the witness because the report he brought with him was not exactly the same as the one provided to defence in disclosure.

Hyslop again sided with Tessovitch, tossing all of the expert’s evidence before it could go to jurors.

The evidence heard by the jury painted a sad picture.

Gordon had moved into the St. Paul Street home less than a week before the fire. He happened upon the living arrangement, court heard, after a chance encounter with William Tomporowski, who was looking for a roommate.

Tomporowski testified he spotted a stranger sitting on a step and crying and asked what was wrong. The stranger, Gordon, said he was homeless and needed a place to live.

Tomporowski said he offered Gordon a bedroom for a share of the rent.

Court heard Gordon and his girlfriend became involved in an argument the night of the fire. She called police saying she was afraid for her safety and was taken to a women’s shelter for the night.

Gordon then retreated into his bedroom, Tomporowski said, while he and William crawled into bed in the living room.

Tomporowski said Gordon became disruptive and started making a lot of noise. A few minutes later, court heard, Gordon came out of his bedroom and said he had started a fire before fleeing the home.

Tomporowski poured a jug of water on the blaze — which started in a box of clothing — but it continued to grow.

He said he tried to awaken William, but she was unresponsive. He said he then crawled beneath the smoke to a door and left the house.

William was removed from the burning home by firefighters. She died in hospital four days later.

Gordon was arrested outside the home and has been in custody since. He admitted to police that he started the fire, but Tessovitch told jurors that was a false confession.

Tessovitch also suggested Tomporowski started the fire out of frustration with Gordon’s behaviour.

Flanagan asked jurors to use common sense and return a guilty verdict, pointing largely to the confession and to the fact Gordon fled the home after the fire broke out.

William’s family and friends have been in the courtroom for each of the 13 days of Gordon’s trial.

Many of them wept during closing submissions as Flanagan recounted the circumstances of her death.

Go to kamloopsthisweek.com for updates on the jury’s verdict.

Fire victim Cheryl William.

Relatives of a Kamloops woman who died in a 2013 house fire wept openly on Tuesday morning as the foreman of a B.C. Supreme Court jury read a guilty verdict following David Gordon’s manslaughter trial.

The jury found Gordon guilty of each of the three counts with which he was charged — manslaughter and two charges of causing damage by fire or explosion.

Prosecutor Neil Flanagan indicated after the guilty verdict the Crown will likely pursue dangerous-offender status for Gordon — a label that could see him locked up indefinitely.

Cheryl William died following a house fire on St. Paul Street on April 25, 2013. She was asleep in the home when the fire broke out and efforts to wake her up were unsuccessful.

After nearly three weeks of trial, it took the jury less than a day of deliberations to come back with a guilty verdict.

“We were a little worried last night,” Earl William, Cheryl’s sister, told KTW outside court.

“It could have went either way. But, I think the jury saw what we saw.”

William said his family has a greater sense of closure now that Gordon has been convicted.

“It was a long haul, a long couple of years for our family,” he said.

“Now, we can hopefully put it behind us.”

Family and friends of the victim held a prayer circle outside the courtroom following the verdict.

During the trial, the jury heard evidence that Gordon lit a box of clothes on fire after having an argument with his girlfriend. He then fled the house and his roommate was unable to douse the flames or wake up William.

Gordon had only been living in the house for two days prior to setting the fire.

Gordon will return to court on Nov. 23 to set a date for a sentencing hearing.

Twenty-three-year-old Archie LePretre is tended to after being attacked on March 22, 2011, while playing basketball with his cousin in the playground at Stewart Wood elementary. LePretre died later in hospital.
Dave Eagles/KTW file photo

Travis Johnny (left) has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Two men have pleaded guilty to reduced charges in relation to a gang-related 2011 murder in a downtown Kamloops schoolyard.

Travis Johnny and Anthony Scotchman entered guilty pleas in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Both had been charged with one count each of first-degree murder and commission of an offence for a criminal organization — alleged to be the Redd Alert street gang — stemming from the March 22, 2011, slaying of Archie LePretre.

In exchange for the guilty pleas, the Crown dropped the criminal-organization charges. Johnny, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison, while Scotchman, 28, admitted to manslaughter.

LePretre, 23, was playing basketball in the Stuart Wood elementary schoolyard with his cousin when he was attacked by three masked assailants wielding knives and a baseball bat, police said at the time.

Mounties held a press conference at which they labelled the murder “gang-related,” saying it had been the result of a conflict between members of rival criminal organizations.

“Police have established that Archie Lepretre and his cousin were victims of a focused, targeted, gang-related attack,” Kamloops RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said at the time.

“The suspects are believed to be from a known rival gang.”

Anthony Scotchman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

LePretre’s family, however, said he was not involved with a gang.

A Vancouver resident, LePretre was in Kamloops visiting family when he was killed.

Johnny was arrested and charged in December 2013. Scotchman wasn’t arrested until April 2014.

Johnny is slated to return to court on March 10 to find out how long he will serve behind bars before becoming eligible for parole. Scotchman’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place the following day.

A judge has ordered a man in his 40s to serve two months behind bars for a series of heinous rapes of pre-teen girls dating back to the early 1980s.

The man was convicted following a trial earlier this year.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, he cannot be named because he was 14 at the time of the offences.

All of the incidents took place on the T’it’q’et Reserve in Lillooet in the first six months of 1983.

The two victims were foster children, aged five and eight, taken in by the rapist’s family.

During the trial, one of the victims testified the rapes “happened all the time.”

In one case, the attacker raped the five-year-old victim inside a Lillooet pre-school. In another, the attacker hid the same victim under his mattress when his mother came into his bedroom, then proceeded to continue to rape her after his mother left.

In his sentencing decision, Kamloops provincial court Judge Stephen Harrison noted the attacker went on to lead a successful and normal life. He has no other criminal record and is married with two adult children.

Harrison said the attacker has continually denied responsibility for the rapes.

The attacker’s brother was also convicted of sexual assault relating to a separate incident in 1987. He did not receive jail time.

A 31-year-old man whose toy assault rifle stashed in a backpack caused Kamloops Mounties to treat it like the real thing has been given a 60-day sentence for drugs found by police.

David Byford pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of possession of drugs for the crystal meth and cocaine found in his backpack.

Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi said the incident started on Sept. 25 when a customer of the McDonald’s Restaurant in Aberdeen called 911 to report a man had an assault rifle stashed in his backpack. Police converged on the restaurant following a number of reports, including one that Byford was acting nervously.

DAVID JOSEPH BYFORD

Varesi said Byford attempted to escape by riding away on his bicycle, but was arrested a short time later in the parking lot of a nearby motel.

“It was a toy plastic gun made to look like an AK47 [assault rifle],” Varesi said.

The drugs had a street value of about $120.

Byford has 33 adult convictions, including for trafficking when he received 10 months in jail.

Defence lawyer Jay Michi said Byford has been homeless for a number of years, “living on the street or in makeshift shelters on the river.”

Michi said Byford has been diagnosed with ADHD and post-traumatic stress disorder and has substance-abuse issues.

Byford also pleaded guilty to breach of a  probation order in connection to an incident in June, when he failed to report as part of his sentence for assaulting a police officer. He was sentenced to another 60 days for that breach.

With time served on the drug offence, Byford was sentenced to a total of 93 days jail.

A judge has ordered a Kamloops resident to serve 140 days in jail after he dropped his pants in front of a neighbour.

James Doll pleaded guilty to incident exposure and breach of probation.

Crown prosecutor Mike Wong said the incident occurred on Aug. 11 on the victim’s balcony.

The woman was friendly with her neighbour and his parents. Doll dropped by that evening when she was on her balcony. Wong said Doll asked for beer, was drunk and increasingly insistent.

“She told Mr. Doll, ‘’You’ve got to go home because I’ve got to get up at 5 a.m.,’” Wong told court.

Doll left, but returned a short time later. The woman later told RCMP he began pacing back and forth, then sat down on a chair and stared at her.

Wong said the woman told police: “He just stood up, dropped his pants and put his junk right in my face’.”

The victim was upset and told Doll to leave. He apologized and left her residence.

Wong said the woman debated for several days before calling police.

Doll was on a conditional sentence for a marijuana-trafficking offence in Alberta. He was on a court order not to drink alcohol or take non-prescription medicine.

Provincial court judge Chris Cleaveley agreed to Crown’s request to revoke that conditional-sentence order and send Doll to jail for the remainder of the term — 140 days — along with a $500 fine.

Defence lawyer Jeremy Knight said Doll acknowledges his problems with drugs and booze and has sought counselling. In addition to drinking that night, Doll took the drug ecstasy.

“He’s incredibly ashamed,” Knight said. “There’s sexual motive to this at all… . It’s more of a highly sophomoric, immature prank.”

Doll is a roofer who wants to start his own company in Kamloops. He supports two children who do not live with him.

A Kamloops-area grandfather accused of sexually touching two of his grandchildren more than five years ago has been ordered to have no contact with them for one year.

The 61-year-old Heffley Creek man entered into a peace bond in Kamloops provincial court on Monday.

His name is bound by a publication ban protecting the identifies of his grandchildren.

The victims were under the age of 16 at the time of the alleged incidents, which occurred between April 1, 2009, and Oct. 30, 2010.

If the grandfather abides by the no-contact order, the criminal charges against him — two counts of a person in a position of authority touching a person under 16 for a sexual purpose — will be stayed.

A date for a special hearing for Christopher Butler, accused of murdering his former girlfriend, is scheduled to be determined next week.

Yesterday, a B.C. Supreme Court justice adjourned for one week the setting of a date for a hearing to determine whether Butler, 41, is not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder in connection to the strangling and beating death of Deanne Wheeler.

That hearing is expected to be held early next year.

The 26-year-old woman died in Butler’s Cherry Avenue apartment in North Kamloops on Dec. 30, 2014. Butler acknowledged in court he strangled and beat his former girlfriend to death, claiming she was a demon.

His guilty plea was accepted.

The hearing will determine whether Butler had the mental capacity to form intent to kill Wheeler.

The former director of graduate studies at Thompson Rivers University will be sentenced in BC Provincial Court in Salmon Arm on Jan. 5.

Andrew McKay is charged with one count of possessing child pornography.

On Aug. 18, McKay appeared in Salmon Arm court without a lawyer and changed his plea to guilty. He said he was appearing without a lawyer to save expenses and to expedite the process for the sake of his family.

“It has been devastating on my career, family and marriage and I’m eager to deal with it directly,” McKay said at the time.

The court decided that, before sentencing, McKay would be the subject of a pre-sentence report with a psychological and psychiatric component.

The sentencing in January is set to begin at 2 p.m.

Conservation officers tracking suspected poachers thought to be responsible for shooting and abandoning a moose in the Nicola Valley traced a pickup to the driveway of a home in Vancouver’s high-end Southlands neighbourhood.

Ashley Page, a conservation officer based in the Lower Mainland, testified for the Crown Wednesday in the trial of two men accused of illegally killing a moose in the Nicola Valley two years ago.

Wei Li and Xin Xiao are each charged with illegal hunting and possession of a moose, as well as failure to retrieve edible portions of the animal. Li also faces a charge of hunting while not a resident of B.C and Canada.

Page told provincial court judge Chris Cleaveley she was dispatched to an address in Vancouver’s Southlands, near UBC, to find a pickup matching a description phoned in by two witnesses on Oct. 5, 2012.

She arrived at the address on Celtic Avenue to find a gated residence, where a maid answered via intercom from outside the gate.

“From the outside, I observed a pickup matching the description,” she said.

The Crown alleges that truck, still coated with mud, was hours earlier used by Li and Xiao off Dardanelles Lake Road in the Nicola Valley backcountry.

Prosecutor Evan Goulet began the trial Tuesday by outlining the events of Oct 5, 2013, when a pair of deer hunters came across a five-point bull moose dead at the side of a logging spur road.

Crown witness Kyle Carusi testified he was hunting deer off Dardanelles Lake Road with his father in the early morning.

Driving down a five- or six-kilometre logging road, the pair came across the dead moose.

Prior to that find, they waved at two men coming in the opposite direction in a Ford Raptor pickup — later traced to the Vancouver home.

Carusi said they checked the moose, including by driving a knife into the lifeless animal. He said it was cold to the touch and its blood was clotting.

Carusi added the moose had a noose around its neck and appeared to have been dragged to the roadside from the bush.

The two continued to drive down the spur road. On the return to the site where they first found the dead moose,  the pair came across a pair the Crown said were Li and Xiao, their pickup backed up to the moose and a cable winch utilized in an attempt to get it inside the bed.

“Once we pulled up, it was like they stopped,” Carusi said, noting he had already taken photos of the moose and noted the truck’s plate.

“I said, ‘It’s a nice moose; nice job,’” Carusi recalled. “I said, ‘You shot this moose?’ He said, ‘Yeah’.”

The two men used an interpreter during the trial.

Defence lawyer Kevin Walker asked Carusi if he thought the men understood his question.

Carusi replied that he did not know if the pair spoke English.

Page told the court she seized the pickup registered to a woman from the Vancouver address.

Conservation officers also seized a trailer hooked up to the pickup.

Items confiscated included two rifles and a green rain jacket with what appeared to be a blood stain.

Goulet said the Crown will enter evidence that a DNA test matched that stain to the dead moose. The issues in the trial are expected to be identity as well as who shot the moose.

Another conservation officer testified Xiao, through an interpreter, told her the jacket was his and purchased in China, when goods were returned to him last year.

The defence argued that statement should not be admitted because the interpreter was not called and the Crown didn’t enter an audio record of the exchange.

The trial is scheduled to continue today.

A judge reserved his decision Thursday following the trial of two men on illegal hunting charges.

Wei Li and Xin Xiao are charged with illegal hunting and possession of a moose, as well as failure to retrieve edible portions of the animal. Li also faces charges of hunting while not being a resident of B.C and Canada.

Judge Chris Cleaveley reserved his decision following final arguments from Crown and defence.

The Crown alleges the two men shot and killed a moose in the Nicola Valley outside of hunting season in October two years ago, then abandoned the animal after being spotted with the kill by other hunters.

As part of the investigation, conservation officers traced to a Vancouver address a Ford pickup witnesses testified was backed up to the dead animal.

Inside the vehicle, they seized a rain jacket with blood stain linked by DNA evidence to the dead moose.

From the trial:

Conservation officers tracking suspected poachers thought to be responsible for shooting and abandoning a moose in the Nicola Valley traced a pickup to the driveway of a home in Vancouver’s high-end Southlands neighbourhood.

Ashley Page, a conservation officer based in the Lower Mainland, testified for the Crown Wednesday in the trial of two men accused of illegally killing a moose in the Nicola Valley two years ago.

Wei Li and Xin Xiao are each charged with illegal hunting and possession of a moose, as well as failure to retrieve edible portions of the animal. Li also faces a charge of hunting while not a resident of B.C and Canada.

Page told provincial court judge Chris Cleaveley she was dispatched to an address in Vancouver’s Southlands, near UBC, to find a pickup matching a description phoned in by two witnesses on Oct. 5, 2012.

She arrived at the address on Celtic Avenue to find a gated residence, where a maid answered via intercom from outside the gate.

“From the outside, I observed a pickup matching the description,” she said.

The Crown alleges that truck, still coated with mud, was hours earlier used by Li and Xiao off Dardanelles Lake Road in the Nicola Valley backcountry.

Prosecutor Evan Goulet began the trial Tuesday by outlining the events of Oct 5, 2013, when a pair of deer hunters came across a five-point bull moose dead at the side of a logging spur road.

Crown witness Kyle Carusi testified he was hunting deer off Dardanelles Lake Road with his father in the early morning.

Driving down a five- or six-kilometre logging road, the pair came across the dead moose.

Prior to that find, they waved at two men coming in the opposite direction in a Ford Raptor pickup — later traced to the Vancouver home.

Carusi said they checked the moose, including by driving a knife into the lifeless animal. He said it was cold to the touch and its blood was clotting.

Carusi added the moose had a noose around its neck and appeared to have been dragged to the roadside from the bush.

The two continued to drive down the spur road. On the return to the site where they first found the dead moose,  the pair came across a pair the Crown said were Li and Xiao, their pickup backed up to the moose and a cable winch utilized in an attempt to get it inside the bed.

“Once we pulled up, it was like they stopped,” Carusi said, noting he had already taken photos of the moose and noted the truck’s plate.

“I said, ‘It’s a nice moose; nice job,’” Carusi recalled. “I said, ‘You shot this moose?’ He said, ‘Yeah’.”

The two men used an interpreter during the trial.

Defence lawyer Kevin Walker asked Carusi if he thought the men understood his question.

Carusi replied that he did not know if the pair spoke English.

Page told the court she seized the pickup registered to a woman from the Vancouver address.

Conservation officers also seized a trailer hooked up to the pickup.

Items confiscated included two rifles and a green rain jacket with what appeared to be a blood stain.

Goulet said the Crown will enter evidence that a DNA test matched that stain to the dead moose. The issues in the trial are expected to be identity as well as who shot the moose.

Another conservation officer testified Xiao, through an interpreter, told her the jacket was his and purchased in China, when goods were returned to him last year.

The defence argued that statement should not be admitted because the interpreter was not called and the Crown didn’t enter an audio record of the exchange.

The trial is scheduled to continue today.

A 38-year-old man said in court yesterday he was forced to smuggle drugs into Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre to pay for past debts.

John Attrell, 38, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug possession and one count of breaching his probation.

Following a joint submission from Crown and defence, Attrell was given a total of 35 days in prison.

Defence lawyer Jay Michi said Attrell has struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions.

Attrell has 25 convictions as an adult, most of them for property offences.

“Coming out of that lifestyle, you have some debts,” Attrell told provincial court judge Stephen Harrison.

“There was an ultimatum: You do this or things will happen to you.”

Attrell said the attempted smuggling was at the behest of a criminal gang.

Prosecutor Amanda Strangways said Attrell was entering the maximum-security prison in west Kamloops after failing to pay a fine given to him as part of a criminal sentence.

He was initially searched for drugs, but correctional officers did not find anything.

However, a nurse who later attended to Attrell notice the smell of fresh marijuana.

A subsequent search turned up pot and  morphine.

Strangways said correctional officials suspected the drugs were hidden in a body cavity.

Michi said Attrell realizes the seriousness of smuggling contraband into jail, something that can result in violence between inmates, as well as overdoses.

Attrell said he is on a methadone program and apologized for falling asleep during the sentence hearing.

Deanne Wheeler on her 18th birthday. She was 26 on Dec. 30, 2014, when she was slain by her former boyfriend, Christopher Butler.

Three weeks have been set aside next July to determine whether a 41-year-old Kamloops man who admitted strangling and beating his former girlfriend is not guilty of the crime by reason of a mental disorder.

A July 11 hearing is set for Christopher Butler, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to  second-degree murder in connection to the death of Deanne Wheeler.

Butler refused a defence lawyer until recently.

Earlier this month, lawyers sought a hearing to determine whether Butler is not guilty due to his mental state at the time.

The 26-year-old Wheeler died in Butler’s Cherry Avenue apartment in North Kamloops on Dec. 30, 2014.

Butler acknowledged in court he strangled and beat his former girlfriend to death, claiming she was a demon.

The Crown alleges, however, Butler showed a pattern of stalking his former girlfriend in the weeks before her death.

Witnesses may be called at the hearing and psychiatric experts are expected to testify to Butler’s mental state at the time.  He has in past been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

A Merritt man who bit his girlfriend’s face after she tried to break up with him will have to wait to find out what his sentence will be.

Ricky August was convicted of domestic assault following a trial this month in Kamloops provincial court.

Court heard August, 26, and his girlfriend began arguing in the early-morning hours, following a night of drinking and watching movies.

The argument became violent, with August grabbing the woman by the neck in her bedroom.

He then head-butted her four times and bit her cheek.

Crown entered as evidence a photograph showing a ring-shaped contusion surrounding a dark bruise on the woman’s cheek.

August’s lawyer argued unsuccessfully that the fight was consensual.

“There may have even have been consensual pushing and shoving,” Kamloops provincial court Judge Stella Frame said in her judgment.

“However, what occurred in the bedroom was not a consensual fight coming as it did with such violence and disproportionate force after being asked to leave.”

August is due back in court on Dec. 10 to set a date for sentencing.

A man accused of killing three people in a car crash near Pemberton in May pleaded guilty on Tuesday to an unrelated driving charge stemming from an incident in Kamloops.

Samuel Alec appeared briefly in Kamloops provincial court to enter a guilty plea to one count of operating a motor vehicle while disqualified.

The circumstances of the Kamloops offence have not yet been made public. They are expected to come out at a sentencing hearing, which is slated to take place in May.

The 43-year-old has been in custody since August, when he was arrested and charged with criminal negligence causing death, impaired driving and failing to remain at the scene of an accident in connection to the crash in Pemberton.

He is alleged to have been behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Cavalier that plowed into a group of three cyclists on Duffy Lake Road on May 31.

Two of the cyclists — Kelly Blunden and Ross Chafe — were killed, as was the passenger in the car, Paul Maurice Pierre.

In addition to the criminal charges stemming from the Pemberton fatalities, Alec is also being sued by the widow of Chafe.

In September, Lizanne Bussieres filed a statement of claim in B.C. Supreme Court, alleging Samuel Alec was negligent and drove the car while intoxicated or impaired.

She also alleges the vehicle’s owner, Carmen Ned, knew Alec was impaired and allowed him to use the car, which was not properly maintained.

The allegations have yet to be tested in court and neither Alec nor Ned have filed statements of defence.

Bussieres filed the action under the Family Compensation Act for the benefit of herself and Chafe’s three children, who are 17, 15 and 11 years old.

Bussieres said she and her children are seeking relief for the loss of guidance, support, household assistance and inheritance.

She is also seeking special damages for funeral and memorial services.

— with files from The Canadian Press

The Crown is expected to take the first steps in B.C. Supreme Court on Jan. 7 as it seeks a dangerous-offender designation for a man convicted of manslaughter.

David Gordon was found guilty earlier this month of manslaughter and two counts of causing damage by fire or explosion.

Cheryl William died following a house fire on St. Paul Street on April 25, 2013. She was asleep in the home when the fire broke out and efforts to wake her up were unsuccessful.

During the trial, the jury heard evidence that Gordon lit a box of clothes on fire after having an argument with his girlfriend.

He then fled the house and his roommate was unable to douse the flames or wake up William.

The dangerous-offender application will be part of Gordon’s sentence hearing.

A 63-year-old man from Salmon Arm has escaped a prison sentence for trafficking crystal meth after a joint submission was accepted by a B.C. Supreme Court justice.

David May pleaded guilty this week to a single count of trafficking out of his home in Salmon Arm.

Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi said RCMP armed with a search warrant broke down May’s door and entered his home to find him passed out in bed. In his closet was about $400 worth of crystal meth, along with score sheets and drug paraphernalia.

“This is not a dial-a-dope operation,” Varesi said. “But, it did involve sale of drugs from a residence.”

Varesi and defence lawyer Jeremy Jensen together asked for a suspended sentence followed by 18 months of probation. Nine months of that probation will see May under a daily curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Jensen said May has struggled on and off during his life with addiction.

He suffered a traumatic brain injury two decades ago that left him cognitively impaired.

“It only exacerbated issues in Mr. May’s life,” Jensen said, noting prior to the offence, May fell in with “the wrong crowd” after being clean and sober for a year-and-a-half.

“Given his age and his traumatic injury, he’s somewhat susceptible to peer pressure,” Jensen said.

Justice Murray Blok agreed with the joint submission on the suspended sentence. May is also under a drug and alcohol prohibition during the 18 months.