Man on run gets 18-month jail term
Surrey’s Dario skipped sentencing hearing after his conviction for attacking high school grads
A Surrey man who skipped out on his sentencing hearing will have to serve an 18-month jail term and two years of probation when he is eventually arrested.
Emmanuel Dario, 25, was found guilty in October 2014 of two counts of aggravated assault following a trial before judge and jury.
A sentencing hearing was slated for March 5, but Dario failed to show up. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
On June 3, the Crown applied for an order that Dario, who is believed to have left B.C., be found to have absconded so that he could be sentenced in absentia. Justice Murray Blok granted the order and a hearing took place on June 12.
Blok delivered his reasons for sentence on Friday in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
On the night of July 18, 2012, a party bus loaded with recent highschool grads — many of them drunk — stopped at a gas station at 176th Street and Highway 10 in Surrey. A number of the occupants got out of the bus and were milling about.
Dario, driving his mother’s minivan, and a friend travelled down the alley behind the gas station, and when a number of students blocked their way, Dario honked the horn. The teens moved but someone hit the side of the van as it passed.
Dario and his friend got out of the van and exchanged words with the young men. The situation escalated and Dario was slashed across the chest with a sharp object, causing a six-inch laceration.
Dario and his friend fled, but Dario grabbed a piece of lumber and circled back to the gas station. He took swings at people and then fled. This happened a number of times. Dario blindsided two young men in the head with the lumber using a baseball-type swing. Both suffered serious injuries.
One young man suffered a closed head injury, concussion, facial fractures and multiple contusions. His sight was affected and he had memory issues due to the assault. The other man suffered a closed head injury, concussion, broken jaw, broken cheekbones, broken teeth and facial contusions. He had two surgeries and missed months of work.
Crown had asked for 18 months to two years in jail and a lengthy probation term. The defence had proposed a suspended sentence.
“While I agree with the submission of (defence) counsel that there was a significant element of provocation, his violent reaction was extreme. It was repeated several times and it was indiscriminate,” Blok said.
Dario told a probation officer preparing a pre-sentence report that “he felt his personal safety was at risk and that he was trying to protect himself. He felt he was attacked based on his skin colour. He felt the justice system had let him down and he had been victimized.”