Fatal crash suspect facing new charges
By Shurtz, Delon on March 24, 2020.
Delon Shurtz
lethbridge herald
A Lethbridge man who is facing charges in connection with a fatal car collision last year has been arrested following an assault at a city liquor store.
Wesley Brian Phillips was arrested Friday after police responded to a disturbance at the Liquor Depot in the 500 block of University Drive West.
Police reported a man entered the store and asked to use the phone, but during the conversation he became upset, threw the phone, pushed over the store computer and knocked over displays of alcohol. Damage to the store is estimated between $5,000 and $10,000. A customer who heard the commotion and approached the subject was shoved several times.
The man was belligerent with the officers and threatened them during his arrest.
Phillips, 36, is charged with mischief over $5,000, assault, failing to comply with previous release conditions, failing to comply with a probation order and uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm.
Following a judicial interim release hearing Phillips was released on a recognizance, but he could not produce the required cash deposit and was remanded.
He is scheduled to appear in court May 29 when he will also appear on charges of failure or refusal to comply with a breath demand resulting in a collision causing death, impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death, and failure to comply with a probation order.
Those charges stem from a collision about 7:15 p.m. Nov. 25, 2019 when a white VW Jetta westbound on Highway 3 collided with a red Ford Escape that was stopped at a stop sign on 51 Avenue in the town of Coalhurst where it intersects with the highway.
The 66-year-old female driver, the lone occupant of the Ford, died at the scene of the collision. The driver of the VW was taken to Chinook Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Phillips was released from custody shortly after he was charged, then re-arrested in February on outstanding warrants from Airdrie where he faces charges of unlawfully being in a dwelling and failing to comply with a probation order.
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