Kyle Zsombor has lost his appeal following a conviction for aggravated assault.

Image Credit: YOUTUBE: KelownaArt

A Kelowna artist who was sentenced to house arrest after he punched a friend and caused a brain injury, has lost an appeal to overturn the conviction.

Kyle Steven Zsombor had been drinking with his long-time friend, Joseph Gates, when he punched him during an argument in 2018.

Gates fell and struck his head on the ground. He was left with a "significant brain injury" and ongoing cognitive impairment and physical symptoms.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dennis Hori described the case as "tragic" and in July 2021 sentenced Zsombor to 18 months of house arrest for aggravated assault.

However, Zsombor appealed the conviction.

READ MORE: B.C. lawyer fined $10K for talking to client about evidence during court proceedings

According to a Jan. 27 B.C. Court of Appeal decision, Zsombor had invited Gates and a group of long-time friends over to his house on the night of the incident.

The group was drinking beer, and some smoked marijuana and drank Korean rice wine.

At about 10:30 p.m. they headed to the Doja Café, which was then owned by Trent Kitsch, who was part of the group.

At one point Zsombor went to the bathroom and the other left to go and get something to eat.

Zsombor went and caught up with them.

A while later some of the group went back to the cafe and went into the alley behind it.

"Mr. Zsombor was mad at them for having left without him," the decision reads. "Mr. Gates tried to calm Mr. Zsombor down and, in the course of doing so, pushed Mr. Zsombor several times."

The decision says Gates pushed Zsombor four times. The events were captured on CCTV.

Zsombor then punched Gates in the head and he fell over backwards.

"Zsombor attempted to continue fighting with Mr. Gates, but stopped immediately when he realized Mr. Gates had been knocked out and was injured," the decision reads.

During the trial, Zsombor had argued the punch was in self-defence but he was convicted of aggravated assault.

READ MORE: Watchdog says no charges after 'negligent' Kamloops cop failed to check on overdose victim

In his appeal, Zsombor again argued the case was one of self-defence and that the judge made errors in assessing this.

However, the Appeal judges don't buy it.

"I will say now that at their core, his arguments are an attempt to have us retry the case and reach a different conclusion on the evidence than that reached by the judge," Justice David Frankel said in the decision. "Mr. Zsombor has failed to identify any palpable and overriding errors in the judge’s fact-finding or inference drawing, any misapprehension of evidence, or any misapplication of legal principles."

Ultimately, Zsombor's appeal is rejected.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2023