Spending the past five months in jail is all the time that will be served by a man who invited himself into an open hotel room in Penticton and uttered a threat to an RCMP officer.
Luke Slubowski, 42, pled guilty to being unlawfully in a dwelling or house and uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm at the Penticton courthouse on Wednesday negating the need for a trial that was scheduled to begin.
A woman complained to RCMP on July 12 that an unknown man, later identified as Slubowski, entered her room at the Mayfair Motel after she had left the door open because the air conditioning was broken.
Crown counsel said Slubowski walked in and made some threatening comments to the complainant, who had to ask him to leave several times before he obliged.
Slubowski subsequently returned to her room and was chased away by the motel manager. Later that evening the woman was at Skaha Beach at a bonfire and Slubowski made further threatening comments. He also threatened the arresting RCMP officer.
“Your vest won’t save you. I’m going to put a bullet through you when I get out of here. I know where you live,” said Crown counsel Mallory Treddenick, repeating the comment Slubowski made to the Mountie.
As part of a joint submission by defence counsel Michael Welsh and the Crown, one count of sexual assault and two other counts of uttering threats were stayed.
Welsh provided the court a letter Slubowski wrote apologizing to the officer and admitted his client was intoxicated that day and does not recall what he said to the complainant. Welsh added his client, who is a recovering alcoholic that had fallen off the wagon just months prior to the incident, had consumed about 18 beers that day. Slubowski indicated he is going to Grand Forks to live with his parents.
Judge Meg Shaw sentenced the man to five months time served and ordered him to 15 months of probation. She also included that he is not to be within 25 metres of the RCMP officer’s residence, have no contact with the complainant or her friend and to not be in Penticton unless he is passing through.
Slubowski was granted 48 hours in Penticton to find a bus to the Kootenays, and despite stating he could stay overnight with a friend in Okanagan Falls, the judge asked that he stay in a hotel in the north end of Penticton given the incident took place near Skaha Beach.
