Time served for man who assaulted woman, threatened police

A Prince George Provincial Court judge sentenced a 28-year-old man Nov. 27 to time served and ordered him to undergo 18 months probation after he pleaded guilty to assault, uttering threats and breaching a release order.

Cody Scott Roy Furnell had been charged with 13 counts after incidents on three days last July. Judge Peter McDermick gave him four concurrent time-served sentences of 60 days and three concurrent timed-served sentences of seven days.

On July 10, Furnell pushed and threatened to kill his girlfriend. He also threatened to choke an RCMP officer who responded. Furnell was released the next day on an order to have no contact with the woman and to not possess any knives.

The woman called police on July 21 to say that Furnell had been staying with her again because he was homeless and provided video evidence of a July 17 altercation.

“They had a very angry conversation,” McDermick said. “Mr. Furnell had a large knife in his hand. She was afraid, and he then uttered threats to cause death or bodily harm to her kids.”

Police sought Furnell. The next day, the woman reported to police that he punched her in the face. When an officer found him a block away from the residence, Furnell raised a speaker at the officer, who used a Taser to convince him to drop the object. Furnell also verbally threatened the officer and his children.

Furnell was placed in custody, but released on an order to live at an addiction rehabilitation facility under restrictive conditions.

“I'm told that he's doing well,” McDermick said.

McDermick called Furnell’s behaviour deplorable, unacceptable and criminal.

“He's in treatment to deal with the criminogenic factors which led to his offending,” the judge said. “He has no record, that’s very much to his favour. He's a relatively young man.”

Furnell was born in Surrey and raised in Prince George. He worked for a railway company for seven years after high school, but suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder due to bullying.

In 2016, some of the people that Furnell said tormented him pursued him in vehicles. The chase ended in tragedy, with one man dead and a woman seriously injured.

Dustin Allen Tisdale was sentenced in 2018 to two years and nine months in jail after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm in that case.

“Troublingly, the families of the bullies never forgave (Furnell) and blamed him for the fatal collision,” McDermick said. “This has caused significant mental health issues for him. He began to use illicit substances to deal with these issues, so he's got lots of trauma and lots of difficulties because of that.”

While under probation, Furnell must have no direct or indirect contact with the woman or the police officers he threatened. He must not possess weapons or consume drugs or alcohol, except prescription medicine. Furnell must also attend a counselling or education program as directed by his probation officer.