The young man who dragged a Maple Ridge gas station attendant to his death six years ago will be out of prison in a month.
Darnell Darcy Pratt has been given a second chance at parole and will be released from a federal penitentiary on Nov. 3.
The last time Pratt was granted statutory release, in June 2010, he violated curfew and was back in prison within 48 hours.
A parole board decision released Thursday reveals the 22-year-old Maple Ridge man will have a difficult time staying away from a life of crime.
Pratt has been racking up institutional charges while in prison for a slew of incidents, including using drugs, drinking alcohol, verbally abusing corrections staff and assaulting another inmate. 
“Your institutional behaviour has been very poor,” the board said in a decision that imposed several special conditions on Pratt’s upcoming statutory release.
“You have used drugs, incurred several institutional charges and are described as periodically uncooperative with your case management team.”
Pratt was first granted statutory release in June 2010 and ordered to live in a Kamloops halfway house.
He reported to the residence and met his 8 p.m. curfew, but failed to return the next day.
A Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest and Kamloops RCMP found Pratt 48 hours later, walking along a Kamloops street.
The parole board heard that Pratt went to a pub twice after his first release.
He was found with a powdery substance, believed to be heroin, when he was arrested.
Since his return to prison, Pratt has not participated in any correctional programs and has gotten into fights that required his transfer to a different medium security facility.
Following the transfer, the violence continued and he is currently being assessed for another move, most likely to a maximum security prison.
Pratt has been assessed as a “moderate” risk to re-offend.
He was 16 years old in March 2005, when he struck gas attendant Grant De Patie in a stolen car while fleeing an Esso station on Dewdney Trunk Road in Maple Ridge without paying for gas.
Pratt dragged the 24-year-old De patie under the car for 7.5 kilometres.
When he is released in November, Pratt will be bound by several special conditions that include having to live in a halfway house or community correctional centre, abstaining from intoxicants, not associating with criminals, and having no contact with the De Patie family.
He will also have no overnight leave privileges until he has shown stability in the community.
His sentence officially ends on July 12, 2012.
