Man who crashed through Kelowna homeless encampment while intoxicated will likely avoid jail time

Photo: Nicholas Johansen

Police investigate after Tyler Manchur drove over a tent at Kelowna's Rail Trail homeless encampment in September 2022.

A man will likely avoid jail time after driving through Kelowna's Rail Trail homeless encampment in 2022, driving over a man who was sleeping in a tent. And the lack of jail time being sought by the Crown largely has to do with investigative delays by the RCMP.

Tyler Manchur, 32, struck a plea deal with the Crown last year, pleading guilty to one count of dangerous driving causing bodily harm for driving his truck through Kelowna's Rail Trail homeless encampment at 2 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2022, seriously injuring a 50-year-old man who was pinned under the truck in the crash.

On Thursday, the Crown and defence proposed a joint sentencing submission to Judge Michelle Daneliuk, seeking a 23-month conditional sentence order that would see Manchur serve his sentence outside of a jail, likely under house arrest or curfew conditions. The proposed sentence would also include three years of probation, a $1,500 fine and a five-year driving prohibition.

While Manchur's blood alcohol content after the crash was 160 mg per 100 ml – double the legal limit – the Crown agreed to stay a charge of impaired driving causing bodily harm as part of the plea deal.

Two months in hospital

Jeff Auclair was inside his tent at the encampment, near Baillie Avenue, when Manchur struck his tent with his Dodge Ram, dragging Auclair about 75 metres until Manchur's truck finally came to a stop. Several other residents of the encampment pulled Manchur out of the truck and “detained” him until police arrived,” Crown prosecutor Miho Ogi-Harris said Thursday.

A responding officer said Manchur was sitting on the ground when he arrived, and had watery eyes and smelled of alcohol. “I'm sorry,” Manchur told the officer.

Auclair was seriously injured in the crash, suffering multiple facial and rib fractures, a “large laceration” to his right knee and “severe road rash.”

“The road rash was so severe that there was a large hole in his lower back,” Ogi-Harris told the court.

Auclair was treated in Kelowna General Hospital's ICU for several days and remained at the hospital for nearly two months, undergoing several surgeries and extensive rehabilitation.

Auclair died in April 2023, although his death was not related to the injuries suffered in the crash, Ogi-Harris said. A memorial was held for Auclair at Kelowna's Metro Central in May of 2023.

Drinking caught on surveillance

Manchur had been drinking at several bars in downtown Kelowna on the night of the incident. He contacted Castanet three days after the incident and said he had zero memory of the night in question, claiming he must have been drugged. But video surveillance from the Liquid Zoo, which saw Manchur enter the bar at 10:41 p.m. and leave at 1:24 a.m., suggested otherwise.

“The accused consumed approximately 11 ounces of liquor, four beer, and at 12:25 a.m., he inhaled an unknown substance into his right nostril,” Ogi-Harris said.

“The accused expresses the belief that someone slipped him something or put something into his drink on the night of the offence. Given the observations that [an RCMP officer] made in the [surveillance] video, the Crown is saying this is not borne out.”

History of impaired driving

While people living at the encampment expressed concerns that the crash had been intentional, an RCMP crash analyst said it appeared that Manchur had attempted to navigate the turn at Ethel Street and Baillie Avenue, but he was travelling too fast, sending him through a chain-link fence and into the encampment.

This isn't the first time Manchur has been caught driving impaired. Ogi-Harris outlined a number of Manchur's driving infractions he's faced in Alberta, dating back to 2012 when he was convicted of impaired driving and fined $1,500 along with a one-year driving prohibition. In 2014, he was convicted of refusing to provide a breath sample, which netted him a $2,000 fine and an 18-month driving prohibition

He also accrued four speeding tickets between 2018 and 2021, along with a ticket for a red light infraction in 2022, leading to an indefinite driving suspension in 2023.

After moving to the Okanagan from Alberta, Manchur now operates a business in Vernon with his father, who's a former RCMP officer.

RCMP disclosure delays

Given the severity of Auclair's injuries and Manchur's past, defence counsel Kevin Westell conceded that his client “will have received some good fortune that has nothing to do with him,” if he avoids jail through the proposed conditional sentence order.

Westell said the Crown was left in a “very unenviable position” due to police delays in disclosing “critical” evidence to the lawyers in the case, leading to lengthy delays in the case. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that provincial court cases must be concluded within 18 months of charges being laid, in accordance with Section 11(b) of the Charter that guarantees a trial within a reasonable time.

If cases take longer than the so-called “Jordan” time limit – and the delays are not the fault of the accused – a judge may throw the charges out entirely.

“The disclosure that [the Crown's] office inherited was in such a state of disarray, not only did they not have everything, it was very difficult for anyone to understand what we did have. Whether it had to with surveillance camera material that had been collected but for some unknown reason not processed or properly analyzed by the police for some time,” Westell said.

“It's inescapable that [Manchur has] a very unenviable driving record, a very unenviable criminal record ... but this is not a situation, I can say confidently, that the Crown would have been offering this [sentencing] position if not for the disclosure issues.”

Had the Crown not agreed to the plea deal and instead took the case to trial, Manchur could have successfully argued that his Charter rights had been breached, and the case could have collapsed entirely.

“This should not offend the public, in my respectful position, knowing what's at risk if the disposition had not been offered and this offender may not have faced any consequences whatsoever had there been a successful [Section] 11(b) application, which is very likely,” Westell said.

Sentencing decision to come

While Justice Daneliuk reserved her judgment to a later day to allow her time to consider the proposed sentence, judges rarely go against a joint submission that's been agreed upon by the Crown and defence. In fact, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that judges should only reject a joint submission if the proposed sentence would “bring the administration of justice into disrepute or would otherwise be contrary to the public interest.”

“This is a very serious matter and I do need to take some time to carefully consider what has been said on your behalf,” Judge Daneliuk told Manchur Thursday afternoon.

A final sentencing date will be set in the coming weeks.