An impaired 24-year-old driver who led RCMP on a wild chase that his lawyer compared to a scene from the video game Grand Theft Auto was sentenced Monday to 75 days jail.
Darwin Sellars pleaded guilty to breach of probation, impaired driving and fleeing from police.
鈥淲hat went down last night was out of stupidity,鈥� admitted Sellars, a finishing carpenter who is employed at a city hotel project.
鈥淚鈥檓 ashamed of myself and about last night. I panicked.鈥�
Crown lawyer Michael Wong said the chase started in North Kamloops about 10 p.m. Sunday night, when an RCMP member saw a red pickup on Tranquille Road brake suddenly.
The Mountie activated his lights and the truck stopped. But while he was radioing the plates, Sellars 鈥� accompanied by the girlfriend he was banned from seeing due to a court order 鈥� accelerated away.
Police stopped the truck again on West Victoria Street near Mission Flats Road, but it took off again.
Eventually five police cruisers tailed the truck up Summit Drive. Wong said Sellars jumped a concrete island and drove in the oncoming lane up Summit Drive near the university.
A Mountie set up on McGill Road, after Sellars took the Hillside connector. But Sellars swerved the pickup around the cruiser, before police could set up a spike belt.
Another Mountie set up a spike belt further up the road, however, blowing out three of four tires. The truck came to a stop at McGill Road and Summit Drive.
Sellars blew blood-alcohol readings of .180 and .200 鈥� more than twice the legal limit. Wong said Sellars was also aggressive and confrontational in RCMP cells.
Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate said Sellars wants to take immediate responsibility and acknowledged the dangerous driving, what he said is reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto. The truck was not stolen, however.
Tate asked for 75 days in jail, served on weekends so Sellars can continue to support his family, including five-year-old son.
But Frame declined to stipulate an intermittent sentence, saying, 鈥渋f you lose your job, that鈥檚 a decision you made.鈥�
Sellars will also be subject to a two-year driving ban.
