Five years in prison for one-punch assault
A one-punch assault two years ago on a Penticton beach that left the brain-damaged victim unable to work resulted Friday in a five-year prison term for the attacker.
With enhanced credit for time served, Thomas Kruger-Allen — who previously pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, sexual assault and common assault in connection with the incident May 3, 2019 — has just shy of three years remaining on his prison term.
“Mr. Kruger-Allen must be separated from society for the time being while he works on his rehabilitation,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Gomery said as he passed sentence.
Gomery devoted a good portion of his reasons to the broader impacts Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people — in particular the residential school system — have had on people like 23-year-old Kruger-Allen, who is of Indigenous descent.
During the first two days of the sentencing hearing in February, court heard KrugerAllen’s childhood was marked by neglect,
violence and substance abuse.
But “despite the grim conditions you endured growing up,” Gomery told him, “you are responsible for your actions and their consequences.”
Crown counsel Nashina Devji had called for a federal prison sentence in the range of five to six years, while defence counsel James Pennington argued for 12 to 18 months’ new time in a provincial jail.
At the time of the incident, Kruger-Allen was on bail awaiting sentencing on a prior assault conviction. A condition of his bail required him to abstain from alcohol, which he violated on May 3, 2019.
That was among the aggravating factors cited by Gomery as he explained the reasons for his decision. Other aggravating factors considered by the judge were the “enormous” impact of the assault on Eliason, the unprovoked nature of the attack and KrugerAllen’s rating as a high risk to reoffend until he’s treated for his alcohol addiction and anger-management problems.
Conversely, the judge cited as mitigating factors Kruger-Allen’s relatively young age, good work history and family support, progress in counselling and other programs while behind bars, plus his guilty plea and expressions of remorse.
The judge separately dismissed a bid for a reduced sentenced based on allegations that police breached Kruger-Allen’s rights when he was arrested inside his home May 5, 2019.
According to circumstances of the assaults read into the court record previously, Eliason, who was 28 then, had been enjoying a late-night bonfire on the beach on the 800 block of Lakeshore Drive, when two women and a man stopped and joined them, followed later by Kruger-Allen and a friend.
At some point, while Eliason and his friend had gone to get more firewood, Kruger-Allen assaulted the two females by grabbing one’s buttocks and punching the other in the chest.
While they were struggling, Eliason arrived back on the scene and asked what was happening.
Kruger-Allen then jumped up on the concrete boardwalk where Eliason was standing and delivered a single uppercut to the jaw of the unsuspecting Eliason, who fell backwards and struck his head on the concrete below.
Eliason, who suffered such severe brain swelling that part of his skull was removed by doctors, said in a victim impact statement he spent several weeks in a medically induced coma at Kelowna General Hospital and awoke to a nightmarish new reality.
“I have lost everything,” said Eliason. “My wife left me. I lost my house. I lost my pets. I can’t work.”
Kruger-Allen is awaiting trial in May in a separate case that he alleges he assaulted two people in a downtown Penticton apartment in October 2019.