Jail sentences for men seeking ‘vigilante justice’ over stolen caravan – Kelowna News

Photo: Contributed

A large police presence on Gibson Road on March 1, 2024.

In the incident that took place at the foot of Kelowna Mountain last March, a man was beaten with a baton, sprayed with bear spray, doused with gasoline and threatened to be burned alive. At sentencing on Thursday, the judge told one of the accused in the attack that it was “probably the stupidest thing you’ve ever done in your life.”

Nathan Nygren, 42, and Elrond Smith, 53, appeared in court in Kelowna for sentencing on Thursday in connection with the incident that occurred on the morning of March 1, 2024, on the Gillard Creek Forest Service Road near Mount Kelowna.

Police He said little about the incident. At the time it only confirms that: First incident near Mount Kelowna and a Subsequent police presence on Gibson Road Contact was made with those in Rutland and the Southeast Regional Emergency Response Team was called to assist.

During sentencing submissions Thursday, Crown Prosecutor Murray Kaay said an argument began after Nygren went to retrieve his trailer from an area off the Gillard Forest Service Road and found another man living there.

His lawyer Gavin Jones told the court that Nygren, who split from his business partner several years ago and sold his house in 2022, had fallen on hard times and started using drugs. He had parked his trailer in a field off a forest service road a few months earlier, but some of his belongings were stolen from the area, including a side-by-side SUV.

When Nygren, Smith, co-defendant Ryan Chamberlain and a woman went to the area on the morning of March 1, they found a man Nygren had previously known had broken into the trailer and taken him to a nearby location. The basis of the failed Kelowna Mountain development.

When a group of men arrived, they confronted the man. Nygren hit him with a baton, Chamberlain sprayed him with bear spray, and Smith poured gasoline on him. They threatened to set him on fire.

At one point the man managed to escape from the group and call the police. Officers arrived at the scene and arrested Smith and the woman as they drove down a forest service road. A few hours later, police went to his residence on Gibson Road, where they arrested Nygren and Chamberlain.

Nygren remained in custody until July, while Smith was recently released.

‘An exaggerated reaction’

Sentencing Judge Clarke Burnett said he actually lived near the Kelowna Mountain area and was very familiar with the camp that had developed at the base of the camp. “A seriously flawed development.”

Jones told Judge Burnett that his client initially thought the man who was attacked was “taking care of business” until Nygren discovered the man had broken into the trailer, tampered with the ignition and moved it to the property in Kelowna Mountain.

Kaay described the attack as an “exaggerated response” to reclaim Nygren’s trailer.

Both Nygren and Smith pleaded guilty to simple assault and menacing charges on Thursday, and Judge Burnett accepted the Crown and defence’s joint offer of a six-month prison sentence for both men.

However, due to time spent in prison before sentencing, both men will now be given two years of supervised release. Smith will remain in a residential treatment facility on Vancouver Island for at least the next four months.

condemn vigilante justice

Judge Burnett said the prison sentences handed down to the two men should serve as a message to those who want to take justice into their own hands.

“Individuals need to understand that there is an appropriate course of action and an inappropriate course of conduct if they feel victimized by other individuals,” Judge Burnett said. he said.

“Taking matters into your own hands to reclaim your own property through violence, or teaching someone a lesson through violence, or administering vigilante justice—all of these are and are very much condemnable.”

Nygren, 42, had no previous criminal record, whereas Smith had what Kaay described as “unenviable”. Despite Smith’s long list of previous convictions, he had not been convicted of anything since 2012. Judge Burnett said the four-and-a-half months Nygren spent in prison was a “severe blow” for someone with no prior criminal record.

“Mr. Judge Burnett said after the sentence: “Smith, you’ve had too long a break there, you’ve got to move on.”

“Mr. Nygren, this is probably the stupidest thing you’ve ever done in your life. Considering your age, sir, I hope I never see you again.

Meanwhile, Chamberlain is scheduled to plead guilty in the matter on Friday, according to online court records.