Lake Country man jailed 2.5 years for brutal assault on woman

Photo: Colin Dacre

A Lake Country man has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for a brutal assault, closing a court file that was complicated by allegations that one of the investigating officers made inappropriate advances towards the victim in text messages. 

Lonnie Smith, 42, appeared in Kelowna court Tuesday to plead guilty to aggravated assault and two counts of uttering threats for an incident that occurred on April 21/22, 2018.

Court heard that over a 12 hour period on those days, he savagely beat a 22-year-old woman inside his home. The woman, who was known to him and cannot be named due to a publication ban, was choked unconscious several times. 

By the time she was admitted to the hospital, she had two subdural hematomas (brain bleeds), a head fracture, torn rotator cuff and broken nose and facial bones. She has since permanently lost her sense of taste and smell. 

Smith had been drinking heavily and using cocaine prior to the assault. At the conclusion of the prolonged attack, he fell asleep and the victim was too injured to call for help. When Smith awoke, he attempted suicide by taking pills.

Police were eventually called to the home and arrived to find the badly beaten woman, and Smith, who was incoherent due to the prescription drugs he had taken, outside the home.

The responding officer and lead investigator, Const. Sean Eckland, has been accused of sending explicit text messages to the victim in the case, although that was only mentioned in passing during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing. He has been suspended with pay since the allegations arose in Dec. 2019.

The revelations of the alleged police misconduct led Smith to withdraw previous guilty pleas related to the assault with the consent of Crown in July. The victim also withdrew some of her allegations, before later reasserting them, further complicating the case for prosecutors. 

The new guilty pleas Tuesday came with a joint submission, or plea deal, from the Crown and defence. Court heard Smith had no criminal record prior to this incident. 

The judge accepted the joint submission and sentenced Smith to 30 months in prison in a federal penitentiary. With credit for time already served, he has 28.5 months left on his sentence.

Judges in Canada are bound to respect joint submissions, unless they believe the proposed sentence brings the “administration of justice into disrepute” and would lead a typical person to believe there is a “breakdown in the proper function of the justice system.”