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West Kelowna  

Ellis faces offender status

A man found guilty in the infamous 2012 police chase and shootout along Westside Road was in court Tuesday, facing a long-term offender designation before he is sentenced.

Michael Edward Ellis was found guilty in February 2015 of 17 of the 22 charges he was facing, stemming from the July 2012 incident.

Three people led police on an hour-long pursuit from West Kelowna to Vernon, carjacking several vehicles during the chase.

Ashley Collins, Shawn Wysynski and Michael Ellis were eventually arrested near the Swan Lake exchange in Vernon.

Wysynski testified in December, 2014 he had forced Ellis at gunpoint to flee from police. Wysynski is currently serving a nine-year sentence for his part in the shootout and chase.

Collins, who was pregnant at the time, pleaded guilty to knowingly being in a vehicle with illegal firearms, and was given an 18-month suspended sentence and 18 months probation. She had suffered a gunshot wound in the abdomen during the shootout, resulting in a miscarriage.

Ellis is the last of the three to be sentenced. While he pleaded guilty a year and a half ago, the Crown is seeking a long-term offender designation for Ellis that would allow for federal supervision of Ellis for up to ten years after his release from jail.

The long-term offender designation can be applied to those who have committed a “serious personal injury offence” and are likely to reoffend.

While Ellis pleaded guilty to committing a robbery, using a restricted/prohibited firearm, knowingly possessing a firearm without a licence and dangerous operation of motor vehicle, he was found not guilty of the five attempted murder charges he was facing.

Ellis's defence lawyer argued Tuesday that while Ellis has a past record of robberies, the 2012 chase and shootout “stands out as an outlier” from his other offences and doesn't show a pattern of behaviour.

“There are numerous instances of him acting like an unpleasant man, which invites the conclusion that he's been indifferent towards others, however, that pattern hasn't been persistent,” Ellis's defence counsel said.

Forensic psychologist, Dr. Will Reimer, testified in June 2016 that Ellis is in fact a high risk to reoffend.

Reimer said Ellis has an “anti-authoritarian attitude” and there is little evidence that probation has had any impact on Ellis’s willingness to commit crimes.

Ellis's record dates back to 1997, when he was sentenced to three years in jail for a robbery in Port Coquitlam.

The long-term offender hearing will continue this week. 

 – Click here for more Castanet stories on this case 



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