Vikki Hopes
Abbotsford News
A Mission man who stole a vehicle in March 2015 when a woman was still inside it has been sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence (house arrest).
Sean Christopher Pappas, 48, was sentenced last Friday in Abbotsford provincial court on a charge of stealing a motor vehicle. Two other charges – theft and kidnapping – were stayed.
The incident took place on March 15, 2015, when a woman driver stopped at a grocery store on First Avenue in Mission and left her 22-year-old daughter in the passenger seat of the running van.
A few minutes later, the daughter charged into the store, saying the vehicle had been stolen. The young woman said a man had jumped into the van, locked the doors and sped away with her inside.
The daughter was able to jump out of the vehicle as it was going about 35 km/h. She broke a bone in her foot.
Police at the time said that the suspect had stolen a bottle of vodka from a nearby liquor store just prior to stealing the vehicle.
The vehicle was dumped in the area of Horne Street and First Avenue, but Pappas was located a few blocks away and was subsequently arrested and charged.
Also on Friday, Pappas was sentenced to time served for a charge of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breaching his bail conditions on Jan. 24, 2015.
Four other charges – assault, uttering threats, assault with a weapon, and using an imitation firearm – were stayed.
Pappas’s jail term will be followed by two years of probation.
Pappas was also convicted in 2007 of manslaughter in the 2004 death of a 21-year-old man in Peace River, Alta.
Pappas punched the man once in the head, causing an artery in his head to tear and killing him. He was sentenced to a jail term of 27 months.
In 2012, he was charged in Grand Prairie, Alta. with two counts of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, and one count each of possession of the proceeds of crime, possession of ammunition while prohibited and possession of cannabis resin.
