B.C. Supreme Court chambers at the Penticton Law Courts on Main Street. (Western News file photo)

Penticton beach attacker won’t spend extra time in jail after second trial of 2021

A joint submission was accepted in exchange for Kruger-Allen's sentence being concurrent

  • Sep. 14, 2021 12:00 a.m.

Thomas Kruger-Allen pleaded guilty over an incident at his former girlfriend’s apartment in 2019, but will not spend any more days in jail past his previous sentence.

As a joint submission between the Crown and defense, Kruger-Allen pleaded guilty to three of the eight charges against him.

On Oct. 19, 2019, Kruger-Allen had been corresponding with his former girlfriend over the phone, before he decided to leave his home, in violation of his bail conditions, to head to her apartment at 2:30 a.m. where a party was going on.

Once Kruger-Allen arrived there, he tried to get inside only to be refused, after which he broke a window, damaged some furniture inside the apartment and uttered a death threat against his former girlfriend while getting into a physical altercation with one of the other party-goers, before giving up and returning to his home, where was later arrested.

The trial had originally been scheduled in May, but had to be rescheduled after witnesses failed to appear before the court.

Appearing in Penticton Supreme Court via video on Tuesday, Kruger-Allen pleaded guilt to one count of mischief, for a 12-month sentence; to one count of uttering threats for three months, and one count of breaching the conditions of bail for one month, concurrent to each other and his current sentence.

Kruger-Allen is currently serving over two years for the unprovoked beach attack on three people in May of 2019, which left one person in an induced coma for several days. He was also convicted of assaulting two young women at the beach that night. He was sentenced for that assault in March.

READ MORE: New trial date set in Penticton for Thomas Kruger-Allen’s triple assault charges

The three assault charges against Kruger-Allen were stayed as part of the joint submission in court on Tuesday.

The defense cited Kruger-Allen’s troubled childhood and his alcoholism, his progress in the many programs he has joined since being incarcerated, as well as how he was allegedly denied access to his chosen counsel and arrested in his home without a warrant, which Crown also noted, as mitigating factors for the sentencing.

“I’m really trying to get my life together,” Kruger-Allen told the court ahead of sentencing via video. “So I can get out of jail and live a life in society without any problems.”

Justice Harry Slade noted the mitigating circumstances, including the proximity of Kruger-Allen’s father’s death to the events, the legacy of the residential school system and its impact on Kruger-Allen’s community during his youth and on caregivers and how Kruger-Allen has done well in participating in healing-oriented programs ahead of giving out the sentence.

“I see in these credible expressions of support as optimism for Mr. Kruger-Allen’s future,” said Slade.

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