Dangerous driver with car full of drugs gets curfew

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This article was published 25/03/2024 (482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kassius Jewar-Tessier was sentenced to serve his time in the community in St Pierre court Tuesday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to dangerous driving for slamming his vehicle full of drugs into the car of a family who pulled over to help him, and for failing to attend court by skipping the province on his trial date.

Jewar-Tessier received a nine-month conditional sentence to be served outside of jail for dangerous operation of a motor vehicle with a long list of conditions that include allowing him to continue traveling for work. For skipping out on his March 2022 court date and moving to BC, he received 27 days enhanced credit for the 18 days he was behind bars after his May 2023 arrest.

Crown attorney Valerie Hebert said the 30-year-old Winnipeg man was dangerous and consistently refused help while in the justice system, including after two youth convictions of second-degree murder.

Hebert described the dangerous driving series of events as bizarre and not something she has seen before in her career.

There were three described interactions: they were with a tow truck driver, family of good Samaritans, and police.

The first was that of a tow truck driver who on April 2, 2021 at 2:45 p.m. called police. He had pulled over to help Jewar-Tessier, who was waving people down in Ile des Chenes.

As the tow truck driver turned around to help, Jewar-Tessier took his shirt off. When the the tow truck driver asked Jewar-Tessier if he needed help, Jewar-Tessier answered “I don’t know” and took off northbound on Highway 59.

A man and his wife travelling with their baby pulled over to help Jewar-Tessier when they saw him flagging people down on the highway, SOS written on his vehicle. The man got out to check on Jewar-Tessier, who said to call 911.

The man took his phone out to do so, but was almost hit when Jewar-Tessier threw his vehicle in reverse and slammed into the car with the wife and baby inside.

Jewar-Tessier pulled over in the same area, where police found him sitting in the passenger seat of his Malibu. A bong was sitting in the driver seat.

The officer had to reach in and unlock the door to open it after Jewar-Tessier repeatedly told the officer it was “fine,” and not moving to open the door. He was arrested for assault with a weapon for slamming his car, a charge later stayed as part of a plea deal to the dangerous driving charge.

When Jewar-Tessier was arrested, he told the officer he “could sell a case of rubber that was on the ground.” The officer stated Jewar-Tessier seemed intoxicated.

In his car were found 18 grams of psychedelic mushrooms, eight grams of dried cannabis, 15 packages of cannabis edibles, nine packages of cannabis concentrate, and a scale. There were no drug charges on the docket.

Two iPhones and a laptop were also seized but returned after sentencing.

Judge Lee Ann Martin during her sentencing said she needed to weigh any risk to the public with the need to rehabilitate a man who had what was described as a traumatic childhood and growing up in the corrections system.

“I want to be frank: your youth record and some of the issues that arose during that sentence is something that’s going to cause concern. It’s one of those unknowns and it’s going to put people at unease because they want to make sure that on a go-forward basis, there is no further reoffending,” Judge Martin told Jewar-Tessier during sentencing.

Judge Martin pointed to his sobriety, success at holding a steady job, and hobbies including meditation and the martial art Muay Thai as evidence he was turning his life around.

The Gladue report that detailed what the trauma was and was used as evidence in the sentencing hearing was sealed from the public, with the judge saying it was to protect individuals named and due to the “sensitive” nature of some descriptions that she said were not all “necessarily relevant.”

Gladue reports are available to people with Indigenous backgrounds who have been affected by Canada’s discriminatory history. Jewar-Tessier is Metis.

The judge did have issues with the report including having the names of people without contacting them, and having a bias that came across as what she saw as advocacy for Jewar-Tessier. But the sealed details of his life gave a clear impression to the judge.

“He is an individual who at a very young age as an infant suffered neglect, abandonment. And then suffered trauma through his own victimization. And what I have gleaned from this is being based in care in a very abusive home.

“For essentially his entire life up to that point was one of chaos, trauma and violence,” said Judge Martin.

Conditions of the sentence include a 24/7 curfew at his home in Winnipeg with exceptions for work, medical reasons, counselling, and rehabilitative efforts including church as approved after application to the court; abstaining from alcohol and drugs; and four hours each Saturday for errands. The conditional sentence is followed by one-year of supervised probation.