‘The police are chasing us. You need to stop.’

DUNCAN — Kenneth Jacob Fenton was three times over the legal limit for alcohol and speeding away from police when he rolled a pickup truck, seriously injuring himself and a woman passenger in May 2016, a sentencing hearing was told Tuesday.

The crash happened six weeks after a highly intoxicated Fenton slammed into a police cruiser, killing West Shore RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett in the early morning of April 5, 2016.

Beckett, a 32-year-old mother of two young boys, was the first female B.C. police officer to die on duty. Fenton is now serving a four-year prison sentence for impaired driving in connection with her death.

In June, the 30-year-old Langford man pleaded guilty to driving over .08 and causing a crash that resulted in bodily harm to Meghan Ashe on May 22, 2016. He has also pleaded guilty to flight from police.

As Fenton’s sentencing hearing got underway, prosecutor Steven Richards advised the judge that Brad Aschenbrenner, Beckett’s husband of 10 years, wanted to read a victim-impact statement into the court record.

Aschenbrenner believes the anguish and distress he suffered from the initial offence were exacerbated and prolonged by the second offence, Richards explained.

Judge Lisa Mrozinski said she will decide on the matter when she sentences Fenton.

A date for his sentencing will be set next Tuesday.

Aschenbrenner sat nervously in the front row with friends during the hearing. Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton, whose son Ken was killed in a drunk-driving crash on the Old Island Highway on July 16, 2003, sat beside him.

Fenton’s parents were also in the front row on the other side of the court.

For the first time, details of the second crash were revealed by Richards.

On the night of May 21, 2016, Ashe went with a friend to Ma Miller’s pub in Langford. She met Fenton, who overheard the women talking about off-road driving. They began sitting together.

Ashe, who had been drinking before she arrived at the pub, had two mixed drinks and might have had some liquor shots. Fenton had three or four beer and two shots of liquor at the pub. They had never met before.

At 11:30 p.m., they left the pub. Ashe was driving a green Chevrolet pickup. She dropped her friend off at her parents’ house, then she and Fenton agreed to drive to a lookout in a cul-de-sac at the top of Ridgeline Drive.

Because Ashe was having trouble with the clutch, Fenton took over driving. When they arrived at the cul-de-sac, they met youths who were camping and celebrating their upcoming high school graduation. One girl was so ill from alcohol her friends had called an ambulance. Ashe tried to help the sick teenager. Other teens noted that both Ashe and Fenton were drunk.

Fenton and Ashe left the lookout when the ambulance arrived about 1 a.m. Fenton was driving.

Two West Shore RCMP officers, in two marked police cruisers, came to help with the sick girl.

Fenton drove to the bottom of Ridgeline Drive and turned north onto Goldstream Heights Drive. Cpl. David Hill, who was southbound on Goldstream Heights Drive, saw the truck and decided to make a traffic stop. As the truck passed, he turned on his emergency lights and siren.

The truck sped past, heading in the opposite direction.

Ashe later told police that she told Fenton to stop.

“The police are chasing us. You need to stop,” she said.

But Fenton did not stop, Richards told the court.

One police cruiser reached 129.7 kilometres per hour as it chased Fenton. One minute later, officers found the truck lying on the driver’s side, just past the intersection with Finlayson View Place.

A forensic collision reconstructionist concluded Fenton was driving at 119 kilometres per hour when he lost control on a curve.

Fenton was lying against the door with his legs wrapped around the steering wheel. Ashe was lying on top of him.

Hill used his baton to smash the rear window of the truck and he and another officer pulled Ashe out. She was unresponsive at first, but then complained of pain in her head, neck and arm.

Fenton was trapped. He was unconscious but breathing. He had a large wound on the top of his head. Firefighters cut the roof off the truck to get him out. At the hospital, Fenton was found to have undisplaced fractures to his C6 and C7 vertebrae, a scalp laceration and a concussion.

Ashe had lacerations and abrasions on her legs and right hand, and pain in her neck, back, knee and wrists. She was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, soft tissue injuries, anxiety and depression.

The Crown is asking for a sentence of 18 months consecutive to the sentence Fenton is already serving.

Defence lawyer Dale Marshall is asking for a sentence of 12 months consecutive to the four-year prison sentence.

“Mr. Fenton acknowedges his behaviour was high-risk,” said Marshall, who asked the court to consider that Fenton was depressed, suicidal and receiving treatment when his second crash happened. Fenton has no memory of the crash and pleaded guilty as soon as soon as it became apparent that he — not Ashe — was driviing.

Her behaviour is a mitigating factor, said Marshall.

“She encouraged Mr. Fenton to drive. She got into the vehicle with him. She was not without some contribution,” Marshall said.