Trailer park shooting nets 22-month term

A West Kelowna man who shot another man in the face, resulting in the loss of an eye, has been sentenced to 22 months in jail.

On Nov. 6, West Kelowna RCMP responded to multiple 911 calls reporting a shot fired shortly after 6 a.m. at Pineridge Estates mobile home park in the 1800 block of Boucherie Road.

Between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., a dispute had arisen between Joshua Prozeller and Bryce Stanton-Collins at the trailer park, a Kelowna court heard Wednesday afternoon.

A witness told police he saw Prozeller attack Stanton-Collins while Stanton-Collins was in his vehicle.

“Mr. Prozeller crept up to the car, smashed the window with a pole and started beating up Mr. Stanton-Collins,” said Crown prosecutor Murray Kaay. Prozeller then left the scene. Stanton-Collins asked the accused, Jeremy Matherly, to retrieve a shotgun from the back of Stanton-Collins’ car and put it on the porch of Matherly’s grandmother’s trailer, where Matherly was living at the time, in case Prozeller came back, said Judge Lisa Wyatt. “Mr. Prozeller did come back a number of hours later,” said Wyatt. “He was wearing . . . some sort of devil mask and was carrying a flashlight in one hand and a metal bar in the other hand.”

Stanton-Collins yelled out that Prozeller was back and that someone needed to get the gun, which Matherly did.

Matherly fired one shot at Prozeller and hit him in the face, arm and torso.

Prozeller was taken to Kelowna General Hospital and later transferred to Vancouver General Hospital for treatment, but he lost his right eye as a result of the shooting.

Police found the loaded prohibited shotgun hidden near the trailer park.

Matherly, 36, was arrested on Dec. 15, 2016, and has been in custody since.

He was charged with attempted murder with a firearm, aggravated assault, use of a prohibited firearm and possession of a loaded prohibited firearm.

The attempted-murder charge was stayed by the Crown on Feb. 2, and Matherly pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

The Crown argued for a two-year jail sentence, while the defence argued for an 18month jail sentence because of the provocation by the victim.

The maximum sentence for aggravated assault is 14 years. There’s no minimum sentence. With credit for time served, Matherly has 114 new days of jail time to serve.

“This is still a sentence at the lower end of the range . . . as I do treat the provocation factor and the guilty plea as significant mitigating factors,” said Wyatt. “However, this was a violent offence where the accused used a firearm, and as such a sentence at the low end of the range . . . would not be a fit sentence.”