An effort to sentence a violent criminal for a bizarre incident in Valemount three years ago has hit a snag.
A sentencing hearing set for Friday was put off until later this month after Timothy Shawn Preddy told the court he has fired his lawyer. It's the second time he's made the move.
Preddy, 46, has been found guilty of two counts each of unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm for the September 2008 incident involving two woman.
Preddy was arrested after one of the women escaped from a trailer home just outside the community of 1,045 people 285 kilometres east of Prince George, and was found running down the road with her hands tied behind her back. The second woman was soon found in the trailer home, also with her hands tied behind her back.
According to testimony heard during the trial, Preddy stuffed a victim in a car trunk and "tapped" the other in the head with a hammer to terrorize the women convince them to give up their drugs.
Crown counsel Geoffrey McDonald has been seeking dangerous offender status for Preddy and in return, Preddy has refused to conce
It's the toughest sentence available under the Criminal Code, with no opportunity for parole for at least seven years. Even if parole is granted, dangerous offenders remain under supervision for the rest of their lives.
In May, Judge Darrell O'Byrne warned Preddy that his refusal to consent to testing will be taken into account during sentencing.
Preddy took in the hearing via video conferencing from the Lower Mainland where he is serving two-and-a-half years for escaping Prince George Regional Correctional Centre in August 2009, the day he turned 44 years old.
He was the first to escape from the institution since it was completed in 1996, although there was also an escape while the facility was under construction, and he was on the lam for nearly six weeks before he was apprehended in Connaught Hill Park.
Preddy is next schedule to appear on Sept. 29.
