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More jail time given for drunken brawl

A Prince George man will spend a further 10 months in jail for breaking a man's jaw during an alcohol-fueled melee at an area mobile home park. Gordon Theodore Peltz, 37, was issued the term Monday at the Prince George courthouse by B.C.

A Prince George man will spend a further 10 months in jail for breaking a man's jaw during an alcohol-fueled melee at an area mobile home park.

Gordon Theodore Peltz, 37, was issued the term Monday at the Prince George courthouse by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Duncan who found he used excessive force when he struck the man "square in the jaw" with a wood doweling and then two more times before the stick broke.

Duncan had to go through a tangle of often conflicting and inconsistent testimony about what happened on the night of Jan. 26, 2013 at the Shellburn Trailer Park on Blackburn Road and relied largely on evidence provided by two onlookers, one of who called police to the scene.

"It is not an overstatement to observe that what happened on the night in question resulted from a toxic brew of alcohol consumption, two long, festering grudges and an overabundance of bravado and terrible decision making by all involved," Duncan said.

Peltz had been at odds with one resident, Albert Head, over the sale of an all-terrain vehicle gone wrong while co-accused Leo John Penney, 70, a de facto stepfather for Peltz, was considered a gossip by another resident in the park, George McCardell, and "did not care for the man."

On the night in question, long after the soured deal, Peltz showed up at the park and threw a beer bottle at Head's trailer and words were exchange. Later that same night Head and some others, including McCardell and his son, confronted Peltz and Penney in the middle of the park.

Penney, who was sentenced in May to 90 days in jail and 18 months probation for assault causing bodily harm, struck George McCardell over the head with a tire iron while Peltz went after McCardell's son with the doweling. Head, meanwhile, took off.

"Instead of writing the evening off as a bad experience," Peltz, who admitted to being drunk at the time, chose to resume the confrontation, said Duncan, and put himself in a situation where he "felt, unreasonably, that he had to strike an unarmed man."

At the end of the Crown's case during a trial on the matter, Peltz pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon.

Peltz's criminal record totals 44 convictions including four convictions for assault with a weapon. A week after the incident, he was arrested for assault on another matter and, in December 2013, was sentenced to six months in jail and three years probation on that incident.

Given a chance to address the court, Peltz said he "deeply regretted what happened" and "made a number of bad choices." It has been the longest he has spent behind bars, it was noted, and also that he completed several self-improvement course while in custody.

Peltz was sentenced to a year in jail in total, but received credit to two months time served for the time he had since remained behind bars while dealing with the incident in question.

Once out, he will spend the next three years under house arrest, one of the conditions imposed as part of his sentence on the other matter.