Missing parole officer’s curfew check adds 30 days to sentence
Cheyann Peeteetuce, the woman sentenced in connection with a car crash that killed two Saskatoon teenagers in 2014, has pleaded guilty to breaching a statutory release condition by being unlawfully at large.
Peeteetuce was sentenced to 30 days on top of the remainder of a six-year sentence she is serving for criminal negligence causing the deaths of Bethlehem High School students J.P. Haughey and Sarah Wensley.
Taking into account the time she spent on remand, Peeteetuce had four years and four months left to serve when she was sentenced.
On Thursday, a Saskatoon provincial courtroom heard she was released on May 3 after serving two-thirds of her sentence — the legally mandated amount of time most prisoners must serve before statutory release.
Crown prosecutor Frank Impey said a parole officer did a curfew check on Aug. 31 and Peeteetuce was not at her mother’s home, where she was supposed to reside under her release conditions.
She was babysitting and couldn’t get away, but she also didn’t take the steps to inform anyone, defence lawyer Wanda Towstego said. She told court Peeteetuce has been regularly meeting with her parole officer, taking programming including a maintenance program for women, and is motivated to stay on a crime-free path.
Peeteetuce was driving a stolen truck with a youth passenger on May 5, 2014, when a police officer activated his siren. She sped away, running a stop sign before colliding with a car carrying three high school students at the intersection of Avenue M and 22nd Street.
Haughey and Wensley, both 17, died instantly. Kara Morin, a 16-year-old who was sitting in the back seat of the car, survived, but was seriously injured.
Peeteetuce’s blood alcohol level at the time of the crash measured between .14 and .17 — about twice the legal driving limit. The speed of the stolen truck was estimated to be at least 90 kilometres per hour.