A man who wielded a needle filled with his own blood in an attempt to steal an SUV from a Prince George car wash has been granted day parole.
According to a Parole Board of Canada decision, Joseph Donald West, 36, will attend a halfway house in the Lower Mainland that offers a substance abuse treatment program. Leave privileges were not recommended and he will be subject to a curfew.
A two-person panel decided against granting West full parole, noting a "very poor record of compliance while under community supervision."
Sentenced in December 2015 to a further six years and five months in prison for the May 2015 incident, it's the third federal sentence West has served for crimes dating back to June 2014 when he mugged a man for his wallet near the corner of Victoria Street and Diefenbaker Drive.
West committed the crime while still on parole after completing two-thirds of a four-year sentence for the November 2010 armed robbery of the Denny's restaurant on Central Street East, in which two masked men threatened staff with a machete and a kitchen knife.
As for the incident at the car wash, West appeared with a syringe in hand just as an employee had pulled the vehicle up to a vacuum and was preparing to clean it out. He warned that he had HIV and ordered the employee to back away from the vehicle.
West got in, closed the door and attempted to start the vehicle but apparently did not know how, turning on the windshield wipers at one point. By then, the vehicle's owner and car wash staff had surrounded the vehicle, pulled West out, knocked the needle out of his hand and wrestled him to the ground.
West told the board he committed the crimes either because he was he was "dope sick" and needed money to buy drugs.
Along with outlining his shortcomings, the panel did note his efforts to turn the corner. A social worker who has worked with West since his was sentenced told the panel he has made "tremendous progress over the last year" and appears sincere about remaining crime free.
When asked for his thoughts about his victims, West said what he did was "horrible" and that "nobody deserved to be frightened in that way," according to the decision.
West will be returning to an area where he did well for seven months during a previous sentence before he returned to his home community.
The panel's decision was issued on August 31.
