ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The provincial court docket had indicated Jesse Lewis would be heading straight to sentencing Wednesday for an alleged crime spree last fall. When he arrived, however, the court heard he had changed his mind and wanted to go to trial on the charges instead.
Judge James Walsh wasn’t impressed with Lewis’ last-minute decision.
“This is going to force the hand again and there’ll be a memo going out again to remind everybody that no sentencing dates should be given unless the pleas have been entered,” Walsh said to the lawyers involved in the case.
“Your Honour, there are a lot of charges here, and a lot of facts,” replied Lewis’ lawyer, Mark Gruchy.
“I understand that, but you still had enough information that you asked the court to set a sentencing hearing without a plea, and that’s the problem,” the judge said.
Gruchy indicated he and Crown prosecutor Mike Murray had been working on an agreed statement of facts in the case, however Lewis had been experiencing “very significant personal challenges with respect to comprehension.” Lewis did, however, want to go to trial, Gruchy explained.
Gruchy had previously told the court he was waiting on medical information for Lewis that could affect what pleas Lewis would enter and how the case would proceed.
Murray told the court he will need at least five days for a trial, since he intends to call close to 20 civilians and a dozen police officers to testify.
Lewis will be back in court Aug. 14 for a status update.
The RCMP received a report Oct. 17 that a male driver in a stolen vehicle was speeding and had sideswiped a vehicle. The man later left a gas station after not paying and sped to St. John’s with a male passenger, police said.
Both the RNC and Holyrood RCMP attempted to find the suspect as he sped in a red Kia Sedona from Colliers to St. John’s, causing several accidents.
According to the RCMP, the driver attempted to ram three RNC patrol cars and had a number of near-misses with other vehicles in various parts of the city, and two confirmed collisions.
RNC officers spotted the vehicle several times throughout the morning around the metro area, but the man evaded police several times.
At one point, the suspect rammed the Sedona into a marked RNC car near Columbus Drive and drove away, the RNC said. He is also suspected in a hit-and-run on Ropewalk Lane.
The Sedona was seen going through the intersection at Thorburn Road and O’Leary Avenue, causing a three-vehicle accident, but no injuries. It then continued up Thorburn Road near Austin Street, where it crashed into a utility pole — breaking it off and bringing down the wire.
The Sedona was then abandoned. Police say the driver then ran to a nearby residence and carjacked a parked red Pontiac van with a grandmother and three children, all under the age of three, aboard. The woman told members of the media the man had a screwdriver and demanded they get out of the vehicle.
Lewis has been in custody since his arrest that day.
A month earlier, Lewis had been acquitted of aggravated assault and weapons charges that had been laid after he shot a man who had forced his way into Lewis’s home. He was convicted, however, of a driving charge after he fled the scene.
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