A man was sentenced Friday to a further 1 1/2 years in jail followed by two years probation for his role in break and enter north of Fort St. James that escalated into a series of robberies at gunpoint of two logging trucks in a bid to escape police.
Ryan Ronin Felix was issued the term in provincial court for an incident that began during the early morning of Dec. 22, 2021 on the Germansen Forest Service Road.
One of the men working in the area spotted what turned out to be Felix and Devin Andrew Jacobs rifling through his personal truck which had been parked alongside the road. Driving a work truck, he went to confront the two and Felix and Jacobs took off in their own pickup truck.
Logging truck drivers in the area were notified via radio and they formed a blockade to stop the two from escaping. Upon encountering the roadblock, Jacobs, who was the driver, rammed one of the logging trucks.
Rifles in hand, they jumped out and Jacobs fired a shot through the truck's door to force the driver out of the vehicle. The driver escaped unharmed although he continues to suffer emotional fallout from the incident, the court heard Friday.
When it turned out the truck was too damaged to drive, they then turned on another logging truck that had been coming along the road and, at gunpoint, forced its driver out. That truck was soon abandoned in favour of a pickup truck they subsequently found which, in turn, was later found abandoned on the Kenny Dam Road.
The two were wearing masks but Felix's had slipped down enough to be identified with the help of still images gleaned from the video cameras in the logging trucks and with cooperation from members of the Tlazt'en First Nation, he was identified.
Exactly how police located them was not spelled out during submissions on Friday, but at the time of the incident, police said RCMP from Mackenzie and Takla Landing were called in to help Fort St. James RCMP set up a containment while also urging the public to stay away from the area.
Jacobs, who was considered the more culpable of the two, was sentenced on June 16 to a further 732 days in jail.
Felix was also sentenced to concurrent terms of 180 days for a break, enter and theft at an April 20, 2022 fitness studio in the 700 block of Central Street East and to 15 days after he was caught on Oct. 20, 2022 carrying a hammer, contrary to the conditions of his release on a surety, and giving a false name to an RCMP officer. (Charges against two co-accused in the break in have been stayed).
Felix had been in custody for 142 days following his arrest on the first incident and had remained in custody since the breach for a further 237 days. Felix was also issued a lifetime firearms prohibiton under the terms of the joint submission.
