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A Kelowna man with an extensive criminal record has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for punching a woman in the face, leaving her bloodied and unconscious.
The charge stemmed from an incident at a West Kelowna home on December 31, 2021.
According to an agreed statement of facts between the Crown and the defence, Dayton Lloyd McAlpine, 36, and a friend had slept on couches at a the woman’s home. She left her eight-year-old son in the two men’s care while she worked the graveyard shift.
When she came home in the morning and was feeding her son breakfast, an argument broke out between her and McAlpine over the state of the home. He punched the woman once in the face, knocking her unconscious.
The woman suffered partial vision loss and still has visible scars. She also lost custody of her three children, including the eight-year-old.
The Crown prosecutor said that the woman initially declined to press charges and had identified another person as the one responsible for her injuries. She later changed her story and McAlpine was arrested in February 2022. He has been in custody ever since.
Convicted killer Tyler Newton was also charged in the case, but those charges were stayed last year after new information came to light.
Defence lawyer Melissa Lowe pointed out that by pleading guilty, not only is her client saving the courts the expense of a two week jury trial that was scheduled to begin in September, he is also sparing the woman and the young boy from having to testify.
McAlpine re-elected to be tried by judge alone before entering the guilty plea on a single charge of aggravated assault. Two other charges were withdrawn.
The agreed statement of facts noted that while the accused has a lengthy criminal record, it only included two convictions for violent offences, the last in 2012. Most of his record involves failures to comply, drug and driving offences. He was jailed in 2020 for 40.5 months for crime spree.
Accounting for time served awaiting trial, he only has 146 days remaining on his 2.5 year sentence. McAlpine was also ordered to serve two years probation upon his release and to have no contact with the woman or the boy.
