Man expected to plead guilty in fatal highway crash
By Shurtz, Delon on June 10, 2020.
Delon Shurtz
lethbridge herald
A 63-year-old Lethbridge man charged following a driving fatality in 2018, could plead guilty and be sentenced when he returns to court later this month.
During a brief hearing Monday in Lethbridge Court of Queen’s Bench, the judge was told lawyers for the Crown and defence were working on an agreed statement of facts in anticipation that the accused, Douglas Wilber Bagnall, will plead guilty when he appears in court June 23 by closed-circuit TV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre.
Bagnall is charged with impaired and dangerous driving causing death stemming from a head-on collision on Highway 3.
Piikani Nation Councillor Barnaby Provost was killed in June 2018 after a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the highway collided with his vehicle. Provost’s 12-year-old daughter was also in the vehicle and sustained minor injuries.
Bagnall wasn’t charged until several months later, and then he was released a few days after that on $300 bail, prompting a protest by Provost’s family members. Bagnall subsequently failed to show up for court and breached conditions of his bail – resulting in three breach charges – and was finally arrested again at a city hotel in January 2019.
Bagnall had been committed to stand trial following a preliminary hearing last September in Lethbridge provincial court, and a trial date was to be scheduled during a subsequent hearing. That all changed last December, however, when defence announced the matter would likely be resolved without trial.
Bagnall, who appeared in court Monday by CCTV, said he hadn’t spoken recently with his lawyer, William Taterchuk of Edmonton, and wasn’t aware a sentencing hearing had been scheduled. Crown Prosecutor Bruce Ainscough assured court, however, that Taterchuk and the Crown assigned to the case were prepared to resolve the matter on the agreed date.
Follow @DShurtzHerald on Twitter
13-12
