City man sentenced to 628 days
Man pleads guilty to seven charges following police chase
ALethbridge man charged with numerous offences following a police chase in January pleaded guilty to seven charges against him in Lethbridge provincial court on Tuesday and was sentenced to over 600 days in jail.
Winston Frederick Hegi, 28, was represented in court by Lethbridge lawyer Miranda Hlady, who entered guilty pleas to seven charges on her client’s behalf, including possession of stolen property over $5,000, possession of break-in instruments, drug possession, impaired driving, flight from police, break and enter and the operation of a motor vehicle while disqualified. The remaining six charges were dropped after Hegi agreed to enter the guilty plea.
Of the 628 days the accused is sentenced, 300 of them are due to the dangerous nature of his attempted escape after being cornered by police.
Lethbridge police reported that on Jan. 25 they noticed a stolen Ford F-350 truck at the Westside Trailer Court in the 2700 block of Westside Drive, which they suspect had been involved in a Coaldale break-in. When police attempted to stop the vehicle, later shown to be driven by Hegi, it sped away and rammed two police vehicles. The truck fled north on Westside Drive and west onto Highway 3 toward Coalhurst.
Police deployed stop sticks along Highway 3 which flattened the truck’s tires, but didn’t stop the truck, and it continued fleeing from police onto secondary Highway 519.
About 11 kilometres south of Highway 3, the vehicle stopped briefly and a passenger surrendered to police. The truck, however, continued south for about 500 more metres before it became stuck in a ditch and the driver was arrested.
Hegi admitted to the court through his lawyer Tuesday he had taken fentanyl prior to the incident. Hegi was also given a three-year driving prohibition on top of his prison sentence, and will have to pay restitution to the insurance company of the truck he stole. The Ford F-350 Hegi took and crashed was deemed a complete loss by the insurer. — With files from Delon Shurtz Follow@TimKalHerald on Twitter