Brandon inmate sentenced to three years for ‘very, very scary’ escape attempt

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This article was published 17/10/2023 (1058 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seventeen minutes of freedom will cost a man three years behind bars in a penitentiary, a judge decided, after the man escaped from Brandon correctional officers last year.

Ryan Joseph Roulette, 31, pleaded guilty in court Monday to charges of escaping custody, assaulting a correctional officer, and flight from police. Both the Crown and defence agreed on a prison sentence of between two-and-a-half to three years for the man who left a path of victims and damage in the wake of his spur-of-the moment escape.

Crown attorney Yaso Mathu read the evidence for the charges in court.

On Dec. 5, 2022, Roulette was being escorted by correctional officers from a medical appointment at Brandon hospital when he refused to get into the vehicle that would return him to Brandon Correctional Centre. Roulette then slipped off one of his handcuffs and used the loose handcuff to strike three correctional officers multiple times, giving one officer a concussion.

Then Roulette jumped over a fence and fled toward a vehicle parked on McTavish Avenue East. After first unsuccessfully trying to smash the window of the unoccupied vehicle, he jumped into an occupied vehicle’s passenger seat and urged the driver of the vehicle, who was waiting for his partner to finish a medical appointment, to drive off.

When the driver refused, Roulette pushed him out of the vehicle, slid over the console and into the driver’s seat and drove away. While in the stolen getaway car, Roulette struck multiple parked vehicles, including one where an 89-year-old man was sitting in the driver’s seat waiting for his medical appointment. At one point Roulette drove onto the sidewalk and only narrowly avoided hitting a cyclist.

A witness reported the vehicle to Brandon police, who located the car on Pacific Avenue. Police tried to stop the vehicle by blocking the front of it, but Roulette manoeuvred around it and continued to flee from police pursuit.

Finally, in the 1500 block of Rosser Avenue, he lost control of the vehicle and smashed into three parked vehicles.

Police pulled him out of the driver’s seat, where he continued to resist officers’ efforts to arrest him. Eventually, police overpowered him, placed him in handcuffs, and returned him to custody.

Mathu emphasized the seriousness of the incident and asked that in addition to the jail time, Roulette also be sentenced to a weapons prohibition and five-year driving prohibition.

“Your Honour, I think you’ll agree [Roulette] caused a lot of damage and it was a very, very scary situation,” the prosecutor said.

Roulette’s lawyer, Mike Cook, told the court that Roulette’s 17-minute escape that day was an unplanned, spur-of-the-moment decision. He said that his 31-year-old client should get credit for taking responsibility with his guilty pleas.

Cook said that Roulette has plans for his rehabilitation, including getting his General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency certification. The defence lawyer also told the court that Roulette, who has treaty status from Sandy Bay First Nation, went through a difficult childhood which involved Roulette beginning to drink at 12 years old and facing abuse in a foster home.

Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta gave credit to Roulette for his guilty pleas and noted his potential for rehabilitation. Still, she called the sentence recommendation “basement level” for these types of offences and cited Roulette’s criminal record for similar offences including prior convictions for flight from police.

Ultimately, the judge sentenced Roulette to three years in prison as well as a 10-year weapons ban and three-year driving prohibition.

“Mr. Roulette managed to do a lot of damage [and] create a lot of victims in a very short period of time—less than 20 minutes,” Hewitt-Michta said. “And when I’m talking about the seriousness of this matter, I’m not just talking about the damage that was done, I’m also talking about the risk that was posed to the public over the course of those 17 minutes.”

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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