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May 09, 2024 - 7:00 AM
A Vernon man who has been in prison for the last nine years following a shootout in Polson Park in 2014, is free under statutory release.
Jacob Daniel Lowes, born in 1985, was running a drug operation out of the old Green Valley Motel, when two men tried to rob him in August, 2014. When the robbery didn’t work out as planned, Lowes chased them across the highway and into Polson Park where he fired at least three shots with a handgun during morning rush hour.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison for four firearms offences and attempting to cause bodily harm. He also has a lengthy criminal record.
Lowes qualified for statutory release with leave since around May of 2023. He worked seasonal labour, then got another job, according to the Parole Board of Canada. In January 2024, he was injured on the job and returned to the prison with a patch on his eye and was in some pain.
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He was prescribed morphine for the pain, and voluntary stopped taking opioid-replacement drugs while on morphine. But the drugs appeared to reawaken his addiction, particularly to heroin, his choice of drug.
Twice that month, he was found to be high or caught with drugs on him and later cocaine, fentanyl, amphetamines and other drugs were found in his system.
“At the post suspension interview you acknowledged your actions that led to the suspension. You admitted to the relapse, and stated you were struggling and at the same time was trying to regain control of your addiction. You report you were ashamed of your relapse and did not come forward due to that,” the board wrote to him.
Lowes took several courses while in prison but all of them carried the remarks: needs a lot of improvement.
His statutory release was suspended for three months but the suspension was removed May 1.
The board said, when offering full statutory release with leave, they accepted he is working on his addiction and that the workplace injury aggravated it. He has a post-release plan to manage his addiction and supportive family members.
“The Board does not see that remaining incarcerated with serve to mitigate your risk, indeed, it may aggravate it at this stage of your sentence by separating you from pro-social support and not allowing you to participate in the type of programming and one on one counselling described by your community parole supervisor.”
It’s not clear in the report which community he is being released to.
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