Update: Administrative error results in do-over for South Okanagan dangerous offender's trial

Due to an administrative error, a South Okanagan dangerous offender will have to start his court journey over, beginning June 5 at the Penticton court house.

Ronald Arthur Teneycke, who is currently serving an indefinite sentence at the Kent Institution in Agassiz, made headlines again around Christmas when he sent a card and letter to Wayne Bellville, the man he shot. He returned to Penticton court on April 1 as a result, charged with failing to comply with a no contact order as a part of his sentence.

After multiple appearances and testimonies, Judge Michelle Daneliuk sentenced Teneycke with another nine months at the court house on May 22. This is when it was discovered that he had not entered a plea at the beginning of this process, and it would need to be redone.

“Teneycke will go back to court on June 5, and that’s where he can decide what he is going to do,” explained Crown counsel Anne Lerchs, who said he could very well enter a not guilty plea after all of this.

“We’re basically back at square one. This doesn’t happen very often at all. I can’t say too much because I wasn’t there for the first appearance but it just kind of went sideways on us, it was an administrative error.”

It was during a crime spree in July 2015 that Teneycke posed as a hitchhiker on the Baldy Mountain Service Road when Bellville pulled to the side of the road to give him a lift. Teneycke raised a gun to Belleville and ordered that he hand over the keys. As Belleville ran away with the keys in his hand, Teneycke shot him in the back. With a gun pointed to Belleville’s head, Teneycke then demanded the injured man hand over the keys and his cell phone.

Belleville, who was later found unconscious on the road, underwent surgery for the bullet that ruptured his spleen. It needed to be removed and one of his lungs also collapsed.

When Teneycke was handed an indefinite sentence as part of a dangerous offender designation in late 2018, Belleville told the Western News it offered him a sense of relief to never have to hear his assailant’s name again. His sense of security was shaken almost eight months later when Belleville received a Christmas card and letter from Teneycke, who was in federal prison, putting him in breach of his no contact order with his victim.

Lerchs said Teneycke wrote in the letter that he “felt no empathy for having shot you” because, he explained, that he should have simply handed over the keys and he wouldn’t have shot him. Teneycke then invited Belleville to visit him for closure and wrote he wouldn’t hurt him, but Belleville should behave himself or he would “kick his ass.”

Lerchs said the Crown has inquired on how the letter made it to Belleville and steps have been put in place to ensure something like this never happens again.

During his crime spree, Teneycke robbed a convenience store and led police on a lengthy chase throughout the Similkameen and South Okanagan, driving around spike belts and road blocks. RCMP rammed his vehicle six times before it was immobilized in an orchard. An officer also fired eight shots at his vehicle before it came to an end.

Teneycke had very little to say during Wednesday’s sentencing at the Penticton provincial courthouse where he appeared by video. In his previous court appearance, he indicated he wanted to plead guilty, but believed he did nothing wrong which the judge then suggested he speak to council before entering his plea. That tone has changed, and in a letter to the judge, he admitted he had not complied with the court order.

Teneycke has a 37-year history with the law, which includes robbery, sexual exploitation of a teenage girl, uttering threats to a probation officer, charges of making or possessing explosives and has had long-running issues of non-compliance with probation orders.

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