Man sentenced on multiple violence, property charges

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on October 5, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A 29-year-old man who left two children stranded on a highway late at night last July received a jail sentence after pleading guilty to several criminal offences.

Colten Fox Yellow Sun was sentenced Tuesday in Lethbridge provincial court to 100 days in custody after he pleaded guilty to resisting a peace officer, taking a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, mischief causing damage under $5,000, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, theft under $5,000, failing to comply with probation and failing to comply with release conditions.

On July 11 Claresholm RCMP responded to a complaint that two “young people” had been left stranded on the side of Highway 2. Fox Yellow Sun was reportedly blacking out and acting strangely, and two youths had locked themselves in a vehicle.

Police found Fox Yellow Sun standing and screaming in the middle of the highway, and when he saw police he ran toward their vehicle as it approached and refused to comply with their demands to stop and lie down.

After additional RCMP officers arrived, Fox Yellow Sun ran into a ditch and lied down, but when he was told he was under arrest, he became aggressive. An officer deployed his Taser but missed, then shot him with pepper spray.

Fox Yellow Sun lied down in the ditch again, and as officers tried to handcuff him he began kicking them. He was finally placed in the back of a police vehicle, where he continued to kick the door and windows, causing some damage.

Paramedics were called to treat the man for the effects of pepper spray, but they were unable to treat him while he was being violent, and police ultimately took him to the hospital.

While he was being transported, he told an officer numerous times, “I’ll kill you, you motherf—-r,” Crown Prosecutor Bruce Ainscough told court. He also admitted he had consumed drugs from an unknown person.

One of the youth who locked herself in the car on the highway told police Fox Yellow Sun had taken the vehicle keys belonging to a woman who was, at the time, in surgery at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, and took the vehicle without her consent.

At the time of the incident he was prohibited from being intoxicated by drugs or alcohol.

Then just last week Fox Yellow Sun, who was prohibited by a probation order that he not be in a liquor store, bar or lounge, was arrested for stealing a bottle of vodka from a liquor store in Fort Macleod. Fox Yellow Sun grabbed the bottle and ran from the store, jumped in a car and fled, but police found him about an hour later.

Lethbridge lawyer Miranda Hlady said her client, who attended court by CCTV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre, has made several attempts to overcome his alcohol problems through treatment but he has not been able to.

“He does understand that sometimes his alcohol problem essentially gets the best of him, but he is certainly trying to break that cycle,” Hlady said.

Although sentenced to 100 days in jail, Fox Yellow Sun was given credit for the equivalent of 15 days spent in pre-trial custody, leaving him with 85 days to serve.

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