Devon Sims pleaded guilty to assault, break and enter, theft under $5,000 and several breaches of probation.
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March 13, 2017 - 6:30 PM
"I WAS ACTUALLY BEING CHASED. I WAS SCARED THAT DAY."
KELOWNA – It was just before midnight when a shirtless and agitated man knocked on the front door of a West Kelowna home on Louie Drive.
He was visibly upset and told the homeowners he was in diabetic shock. He asked for a glass of water and an ambulance.
They described him as “high” and “agitated” and “screaming things that didn’t make sense,” but they gave him water. When the homeowner used his cell phone to call 911, the man grabbed it, pushed him aside and ran into the home.
When police arrived, they found the back door open and the house empty but a bag with Corrections Canada Identification belonging to Devon Johan Sims, 32, was left behind.
Around that same time an employee of the Best Western hotel nearby phoned police saying a shirtless man came in claiming to have been assaulted but left before paramedics arrived.
“He kept taking off before the police got there,” Crown lawyer Kurt Froelich said.
Appearing via video, Sims, a barber and tattoo artist from Kamloops, said he did not intend to scare or hurt anyone.
His lawyer, Claire Mastop, said "he felt as though he was being chased by people in a car who had a gun."
“He didn’t want police attending and making it seem like he was ratting on someone.”
A police dog team found him between two condo buildings at Two Eagles Golf Course.
On Monday, March 13 he pleaded guilty to assault and being in a dwelling house without lawful excuse as well as several breaches of probation. Court records show he was convicted of a break and enter in Kamloops for which he spent 15 months in jail.
He had been released from custody only four days prior to knocking on the West Kelowna door.
He was sentenced to time served with enhanced credit - 7.6 months – and put on probation for two years.
“I was actually being chased,” he said. “I was scared that day.”
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News from © iNFOnews, 2017