Accused in Amber Alert case had been out of custody only 25 days

19-year-old faces multiple charges

The 19-year-old man charged in last week’s child abduction in North Battleford was released from provincial custody less than one month before the incident that prompted an Amber Alert.

Johnathan Ryann Gunville appeared Monday in North Battleford provincial court. He is charged with child abduction, unlawful confinement, abandoning a child, two counts of dangerous driving, motor vehicle theft, possession of the proceeds of crime, evading a police officer, two counts of driving while disqualified and eight counts of breaching probation.

He faces charges in connection with the Sept. 16 Amber Alert, as well as two subsequent vehicle thefts on Sept. 19 and 20, police said last week.

On Monday, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said Gunville was released from Saskatoon Correctional Centre on Aug. 22 after approximately 185 days in custody. He had been remanded on Feb. 19, charged with theft of a motor vehicle, driving while disqualified, assault and three counts of breaching probation.

Gunville’s prior record included a 73-day sentence in 2017 for theft, car theft, breach of probation and failure to stop.

Ernest Gunville, who identified himself as Johnathan’s father, said in a Facebook message to the Saskatoon Starphoenix that his son had gone to jail but would not elaborate further.

“I have decided that I do not want to comment on any of these events now or later,” he said.

The Amber Alert was issued on Sept. 16 after a six-year-old girl went missing when someone stole a running, unlocked SUV from outside a strip mall on Railway Avenue North around 5 p.m. The girl, who has autism and epilepsy, was in the back seat at the time.

Around 6:45 a.m. on Sept. 17, RCMP reported the girl had been found safe in the stolen vehicle, two kilometres away from where it had been taken. It had been spotted by workers who called police to report the vehicle, which they recognized from the police description.

Gunville was taken into custody on Friday after investigators used hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from more than 200 businesses to establish the vehicle’s movements after it was stolen with the six-year-old girl inside.

I have decided that I do not want to comment on any of these events now or later.