4 1/2 years in jail for drugs, gun and car chase in Oliver
A prolific offender who was caught with a loaded handgun and drugs after a police chase in Oliver was sentenced Tuesday to 4 1/2 years in jail.
Samuel Prescott-Perrault, 36, previously pleaded guilty to three counts stemming from events on June 22, 2021: dangerous driving, possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, and unlicensed possession of a firearm.
With enhanced credit for time served since his arrest, he has about one year remaining on his sentence, which was a joint submission from Crown and defence.
“Clearly Mr. Prescott-Perrault was in the throes of addiction himself and, while it’s not an excuse, it’s certainly an explanation for his criminal behaviour at the time,” said Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick in her reasons for sentence.
Crown counsel Michael Le Dressay told the court Prescott-Perrault was a passenger in a Cadillac Escalade that was associated with drug trafficking and under surveillance by plainclothes RCMP officers in Penticton on June 22, 2021.
Officers noticed Prescott-Perrault, who they knew was prohibited from driving, get into the driver’s seat of the Escalade and pull away. They tailed the Escalade on Highway 97 towards Oliver, but found it abandoned at an RV park along the way.
An RCMP officer in Oliver who was on the lookout for Prescott-Perrault then noticed him behind the wheel of a Dodge Durango on Highway 97 heading north out of Oliver.
Officers moved to arrest PrescottPerrault when he pulled into a gas station.
When the first police vehicle blocked the front of the Durango, Prescott-Perrault suddenly “reverses at a high rate of speed directly onto Highway 97, which is busy and congested,” recounted Le Dressay in his recitation of the circumstances.
“Several vehicles have to swerve out of the way. No police chase is undertaken of the Durango, but they watch the Durango go through two intersections without stopping… and again note vehicles are required to take evasive measures to avoid collisions.”
Officers lost track of the Durango, but found it later sitting empty in the Tradewinds Estates Mobile Home Park. A police dog was able to track Prescott-Perrault from the Durango and found him hiding in some nearby bushes.
Officers also found a backpack near Prescott-Perrault that contained 10.5 grams of fentanyl, 17 grams of methamphetamine, and a loaded nine-millimetre Beretta handgun.
Le Dressay argued the joint submission was fit because of frailties in the Crown’s case and the effects of Canada’s colonization of First Nations people, including Prescott-Perrault, who is of Mohawk ancestry.
Much of Tuesday’s hearing was taken up by defence counsel Jordan Watt recounting Prescott-Perrault’s difficult upbringing in Montreal, where his childhood was marked by poverty, abuse and addiction, and completely disconnected from his Mohawk heritage.
Prescott-Perrault began using drugs at age nine, left home at age 12 and lived on the streets of Montreal until he was 19, when he arrived in B.C. to seek a fresh start.
He managed to hold some jobs and have three children, but eventually descended back into addiction and compiled an increasingly serious criminal record with prior offences for dangerous driving and gun possession.
Watt noted his client has since completed his Grade 12 equivalent while locked up, though, and is eager to reconnect with his family.
In a press release issued four days after Prescott-Perrault’s arrest, Penticton RCMP Staff-Sgt. Bob Vatamaniuk described it as “an excellent example of a co-ordinated effort exercised by police officers from multiple jurisdictions to safely arrest a high-profile repeat offender.
“It is very concerning when these offenders are in possession of loaded firearms while actively committing crimes and fleeing from the police. These actions and firearms pose significant risk both real and potential to innocent bystanders and our officers,” said Vatamaniuk.