(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - A man arrested for a raft of charges in several different cities will face nine months in jail after pleading guilty to offences including mischief, breach of probation, possession of stolen property, resisting an officer, dealing with an identity document without lawful excuse and fraudulently obtaining food.

Jaris Bailey Lovado, 26, was in Kamloops Provincial Court today, July 30, to plead guilty to a series of charges from Salmon Arm, Abbotsford, Kamloops and Vancouver.

Lovado was arrested in Salmon Arm in May after he and Stephanie McLachlan left a restaurant in Salmon Arm without paying. Crown prosecutor Laura Drake said police caught the accused driving while prohibited. While in custody, Lovado bashed his head into the side of the cruiser and kicked the door and windows.

“By the time the extra officers arrived, Mr. Lovado had a seatbelt wrapped around his head several times and appeared to be trying to strangle himself,” Drake said, adding Mounties subdued the accused with pepper spray.

Officers checked Lovado’s cellphone and found out it belonged to a robbery victim who was maced by a couple in Kelowna.

Lovado was released on bail. Two months later on July 20, Lovado and McLachlan were caught driving a stolen vehicle. After police pulled over McLachlan and approached her window, she and Lovado took off at 75 kilometres an hour down Gleneagles Drive. Drake says officers spent an hour and a half searching for the vehicle before finding it parked in a driveway on Springhill Drive in Sahali. The license plate number was different and the plate which matched investigators' description rested on the vehicle’s backseat.

“The inference is the license plate was switched out,” Drake said.

Along with the stolen plate, Crown said police found break and enter tools, identity documents including passports that did not belong to the accused and laminating equipment assumed to be for making false identification cards.

When asked to identify himself, Drake said Lovado told police his name was Roy Lovedoll.

Drake said police determined the accused was lying after he struggled to spell Lovedoll - a name not present in any crime databases.

After hearing of Lovado’s criminal history and issues with addiction, Judge Chris Cleaveley said a proper sentence for the accused would not include a house arrest term the defence was seeking.

"You’ve got some prospects, but you’ll have to deal with this drug and alcohol issue. For a young man who's 26 years of age it’s just an awful criminal record,” Cleaveley told the accused. “I hope you’re able to turn the corner."

Cleaveley sentenced Lovado to nine months in jail. Following his term in custody, he will be placed on probation with conditions to abstain from drugs and alcohol, not possess any identification other than his own, not contact McLachlan and report regularly to a probation officer.

McLachlan was expected to enter guilty pleas Thursday afternoon. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

— This story was corrected at 1:05 p.m., Sunday, April 10, 2016. An earlier version of this story stated Lovado was convicted of robbery, which he was charged with in April 2013. He has not been convicted of that charge and the story was changed to reflect that fact.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015