THE NOT SO GREAT ESCAPE
Petrin sentenced for 2016 attempted escape
A man convicted in the 2012 shooting death of Saskatoon mother Lorry Santos has been sentenced for trying to escape from custody while awaiting his first-degree murder trial.
On Aug. 17, 2016, Joshua Dylan Petrin slipped through an opening in the fence of an internal exercise yard at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, according to the facts presented Friday in Saskatoon provincial court.
He scaled the jail wall, draped a blanket over the barbed wire fence and crawled onto the roof before jumping down.
While defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle called it a crime of opportunity that took about 10 minutes of planning, Judge Albert Lavoie ruled it was a significant and serious escape done to avoid facing his murder charge.
He could have gotten away had he not been caught by guards almost immediately, Lavoie noted. The Crown said there was evidence that Petrin had arranged for a getaway vehicle.
The escape was a result of the stress Petrin was feeling about facing charges for a murder he maintains he didn’t commit, Pfefferle said. Following a trial in September, a judge convicted Petrin of first-degree murder in the death of Santos. He was given a mandatory life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years. Petrin is appealing the conviction.
He received a 15-month sentence for escaping lawful custody and an additional eight-month sentence for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose after officers found he was carrying a sharpened metal rod. The jail term is to be served concurrently with Petrin’s life sentence.