Photo: RCMP, Facebook

Dayton McAlpine, left, and Tyler Newton.

Two long-time prolific offenders in Kelowna, including the man who fatally stabbed a random person on a city bus back in 2014, are back behind bars facing a slew of charges, just months after they were previously released from custody.

Both 33-year-old Tyler Newton and 36-year-old Dayton McAlpine have been in and out of custody for much of their adult lives. Newton is infamously known for fatally stabbing 55-year-old Caesar Rosales on a Kelowna transit bus back in 2014. The killing was completely unprovoked.

McAlpine, meanwhile, was involved in a chaotic scene in the parking lot at the West Kelowna Walmart back in June 2019, when he fled from police in a truck, ramming into two police vehicles and a civilian's SUV, prompting an officer to shoot at him. McAlpine got away and remained on the lam for several weeks.

Since serving significant jail sentences for those incidents, both men have continued to face a number of subsequent charges, and they're both now back in custody.

Multiple alleged incidents

Newton was re-arrested last August after he was found driving a stolen truck, but he was released on bail just two weeks later. Less than two months after he was released, he was arrested again in October and charged for several separate alleged incidents.

He now faces a charge of breaching his probation on Sept. 18 and assault causing bodily harm on Oct. 6, both of which allegedly occurred in Kelowna. An incident that allegedly occurred in Kamloops on Oct. 18 led to additional charges of theft of a motor vehicle, driving while disqualified, mischief under $5,000, possession of stolen property over $5,000 and four charges of breach of conditions.

He's scheduled to plead guilty to some of the charges stemming from the August 2023 stolen vehicle incident, the September 2023 breach and the October 2023 Kamloops vehicle theft in April of this year. A trial for the October 2023 assault causing bodily harm charge is set for next September.

He remains in custody at this time.

Following Castanet's reporting on Newtons's bail release back in October 2022, following a month-long manhunt for him, the issue was brought up by the Opposition in B.C.'s legislature. BC United MLA Karin Kirkpatrick asked then-Attorney General Murray Rankin: “Why was Tyler Newton's right to reoffend more important to this NDP government than the right of the community to be safe?”

New weapons charges

McAlpine was most recently handed a 2.5-year sentence this past June for punching a woman in the face and knocking her unconscious in West Kelowna on Dec. 31, 2021. But with enhanced credit for time served, he was left with less than five months left to serve.

Both McAlpine and Newton were initially charged in that Dec. 31, 2021 assault, but the Crown later dropped the charges against Newton, opting only to prosecute McAlpine.

But about three months after completing that sentence, McAlpine was arrested once again this past January. This time, he was charged with several weapons charges, including possessing a firearm contrary to an order and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

He remains in custody, with his next court appearance set for later this week.

McAlpine was previously given a 40.5-month sentence back in July 2020 for a crime spree that spanned over several months in 2019.

A horrific killing

Newton was handed a seven-year sentence for fatally stabbing Rosales on the No. 8 bus in Rutland back in 2014 after taking a plea deal with the Crown in 2016 for a lesser manslaughter conviction. A psychologist told the court that Newton was in a state of psychosis during the killing, caused by a long period of heavy drug use.

He was released on statutory release after serving two-thirds of his sentence, but this release was revoked on two separate occasions after he tested positive for methamphetamine just two days after leaving jail the first time in 2019, and then again about a month after his second release in 2020.

Back in 2020, the Parole Board of Canada said Newton was “unwilling and unmotivated to ... engage in interventions to reduce and/or manage [his] risk to reoffend," and noted he had been found in prison with a homemade weapon, threatened staff and got in a fight with another inmate.

His sentence on the manslaughter charge expired in January 2021.

In March 2022, Newton was handed a nine-month sentence for a handful of convictions stemming from multiple incidents between July 2021 and January 2022.