A man sentenced to 30 months in jail for escaping from a Prince George Regional Correctional Centre (PGRCC) is not entitled to claim credit for pre-sentence custody, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled.
Timothy Shawn Preddy pleaded guilty to breaking out of the maximum security prison in August 2009 while awaiting trial on charges he'd confined two women in a motorhome.
He'd made up his bed to appear as if he was sleeping and hid in a closet. With the guards distracted by a fake medical emergency, he left the closet and -- using a piece of broken porcelain from a sink -- broke a window and climbed onto the roof.
Preddy, 43, used bed sheets braided into a rope to reach the ground, where someone waiting on a nearby highway drove him away. He remained at large for about six weeks before being re-captured.
The accused pleaded guilty to breaking out of prison and received a 30-month jail sentence, with the trial judge declining to give him credit for so-called "dead time" or pre-sentence custody.
He appealed the sentence, arguing that it was outside the range and that he was entitled to get 14 months' credit for dead time.
But in a ruling posted online Friday, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice David Frankel dismissed the sentence appeal.
The judge found that the trial judge had erred in his reasons for denying the dead time, but said there were good reasons for refusing that credit.
"To give Mr. Preddy credit for any time in custody prior to the disposition of the original charges would allow him to benefit from having escaped," said the judge.
"Further it would diminish the deterrent effect of sentencing. This is because it would send a signal to persons who are detained awaiting trial that they have nothing to lose by trying to escape because, if recaptured, the time then spent in custody will be counted as part of the sentence imposed for the escape."
Frankel said Preddy can still use the dead time for credit on the outstanding charges. Preddy was convicted in the unlawful confinement case, with completion of sentencing put over until September.
