Curtis Sagmoen leaves the Vernon courthouse Sept. 9.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

Curtis Sagmoen will be released from prison today under a probation order to return to live on his Salmon River Road property for the first time since the body of Traci Genereaux was found there by police in 2017.

Sagmoen, 39, was found guilty today of three charges from entirely different circumstances from Genereaux, including covering his face with intent to commit an indictable offence and threatening to cause death or bodily harm while using a firearm. He was found not guilty of uttering threats and intentionally discharging a firearm. 

Justice Alison Beames agreed to a joint submission from defence and the Crown for a sentence of just less than two years in prison. The court considers that he has already served more than three years in prison already so he will be released today. 

But prosecutor Juan O'Quinn said they insisted on a three-year probation order under strict conditions to provide protections to the community.

"It gives us 36 months within which Mr. Sagmoen's actions and behaviours can be monitored and controlled to the point that it would be deemed custody is not required," he said.

The court discussed at length the sentence which was carefully crafted to avoid giving a sentence of two years or longer because such sentences cannot include a period of probation. In that circumstance, he would have simply been released, but Crown, defence and the judge all agreed the probationary term was the best route. 

He is under strict conditions including that he must reside on the property owned by his parents on Salmon River Road. His access to the internet must be monitored and he must have no contact with the complainants in any of his cases nor can he have contact in any way with any sex trade workers, including through the internet. 

Justice Beames confirmed that Sagmoen was the man sending text messages to the complainant in this case. She said those texts provided enough circumstantial evidence to satisfy her that Sagmoen was the one who "ambushed" the victim in August, 2017. She said the text messages he sent the woman made that clear: He first told her not to come to his address but to his neighbour's address. When she was close to his rural property in Silver Creek in the North Okanagan, he told her the correct address and told her to go up his long driveway.

She texted when she arrived, then drove up the driveway but had to stop when the road was blocked by a gate. She got out of her car and found herself at a bridge. Within just a few minutes, she heard rustling and a masked man come out of the bush.

Beames said the person lying in wait had to be Sagmoen. No one else knew she was there. There was no evidence of anyone else in the area, no other vehicles were found on a neighbour's surveillance camera. It was roughly 11 p.m. and not likely anyone was hiking or walking dogs, and if they were there would be no reason to mask their faces or carry a firearm.

The complainant, who cannot be named by court order, said she managed to get back into her vehicle. That's when Sagmoen pointed the gun at her. She managed to get it in reverse and back down the driveway but put her car in a ditch. She ran the rest of the way down the driveway, losing both of her pink slippers, then all the way back up Salmon River Road to the highway.

Her feet were mangled and bloody before she finally found a place to rest. A man who found her in his yard the next morning assisted her and got her an ambulance. 

Sagmoen has been held in prison since his arrest in September 2017. The courts interpret his time already served as more than three years in prison. 

His trials so far have attracted a bright spotlight, largely because one month after his arrest for these charges, RCMP conducted an extensive search on the Salmon River Road property where he lived with his parents. They found the body of 18-year-old Traci Genereaux there. She had been missing for months.

If police know how long she was there or how she died, they haven’t said. No charges have been laid in her death.

After his arrest, police laid a number of charges entirely unrelated to her death.

In March 2018, he was charged with assault causing bodily harm after a 2013 complaint by a woman in Maple Ridge. He pleaded guilty to that charge in February and was given a short jail sentence and probation.

Last December, Sagmoen was given an absolute discharge for using a homemade spike belt in July 2017 to flatten the tires of a woman driving on Salmon River Road where he lived.

For more stories on Sagmoen, go here.

— This story was updated at 11:47 a.m. Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, to add more information from the court proceedings.

— This story was updated at 12:02 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, 2019 to include sentencing submissions.

— This story was updated and edited for style at 4:29 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, 2019.

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