A violent man who has twice assaulted girlfriends and threatened police and corrections officials should not be declared a dangerous offender and given an indeterminate jail sentence, a B.C. Supreme Court justice has ruled.
Instead, Justice Kathleen Ker on Friday, Sept. 12, gave Shane Jeurissen another 3.5 years in jail, along with a 10-year supervision order in the community, labelling him a long-term offender — one step below the ultimate designation that typically means life in jail.
The official jail sentence is seven years for assault with a weapon, obstruction of justice and breaching court orders.
Jeurissen has been in custody since May 2012, when he was arrested in Barriere for punching his girlfriend in the face, choking her and holding a knife to her throat.
He was given credit at time-and-a-half for the period he has already been in jail awaiting trial.
The Crown argued Jeurissen should be labelled a dangerous offender based on that guilty plea, as well as for an assault against another girlfriend 11 years ago, what the Crown called a pattern.
While Jeurissen has dozens of other criminal convictions, they are mainly minor offences, with most being breaches of court conditions.
“I found it difficult to discern a pattern,” Ker said, acknowledging the two incidents of domestic violence as severe.
Jeurissen’s common-law wife, the victim of the assault in 2012, testified he had not hurt her on any other occasion, something Ker said was backed up by intercepted calls from Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre (KRCC) to her — calls that were forbidden under a court order.
For those calls and letters from jail demanding she lie and change her story about events that evening — demands that included physical threats — Jeurissen was convicted of obstruction of justice.
He continued the calls even after being convicted, what Ker called a “cavalier disregard” for the court-ordered ban on contact.
“It’s his view . . . he doesn’t have to follow the rules,” she said.
A psychological expert testified on behalf of the Crown that Jeurissen is at a high risk to reoffend violently. The 43-year-old has neurological problems, long-term substance-abuse issues and an anti-authoritarian attitude. He has a record of threats against police, guards and Crown officials.
Ker urged corrections officials to make available a full range of psychological help in jail. For the 10-year supervision order, Ker advised corrections officials to release Jeurissen slowly into the community and to make a requirement that he report any relationships with women to his parole officer.
Jeurissen was sedated before his appearance on Sept. 11.
Ker said she found it encouraging that, with the correct medication, Jeurissen appeared able to sit in court without the frequent outbursts that had him at first banished to appear by video only during his trial.
Eventually, he was not able to be present, in person or by video from KRCC, due to his frequent outbursts.
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