Austin Eyres
Image Credit: FACEBOOK
August 01, 2017 - 11:37 AM
KAMLOOPS - A Kamloops man who stabbed a cab driver, leaving him with serious injuries, will spend more than two years behind bars.
Austin Eyres, 20, pleaded guilty last month to an attack that left Kami Cabs driver Cal Huntington with serious injuries. Kamloops Supreme Court judge Hope Hyslop gave her decision on sentencing yesterday, July 31.
Eyres will spend two-and-a-half years behind bars, but with credit for time served, he's anticipated to be released in just over one year. He'll then be placed on probation for two years.
Hyslop's decision was a middle-ground from both defence and Crown lawyers. Prosecutor Alex Janse asked for a three-year sentence while Eyres's lawyer Jay Michi asked for two years.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 24, 2016, Eyres approached a Husky gas station on Columbia Street in Kamloops and asked an employee to call him a cab.
Court has heard the employee agreed and Huntington arrived at the gas station a short time later. Eyres asked to be taken to the area of 8 Avenue downtown and Huntington pulled up to the street in the area of Pleasant Street.
Eyres began stabbing Huntington and made off with about $120 before fleeing on foot. Huntington previously told iNFOnews.ca he radioed dispatch and asked for 911 immediately.
Police arrived and Huntington was transported to Royal Inland Hospital with serious injuries.
After Eyres fled, court heard, he ditched his bloody clothes and the knife. But the image of Eyres at the gas station was circulated by police and Eyres was identified by three people within one day.
Janse told the court in Eyres's sentencing hearing how Huntington has suffered physically and emotionally since the incident.
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