A Kamloops-area man has been ordered to spend a month in jail for his ninth drunk driving conviction.
Jacob Charles Stepanow, 62, was sentenced after pleading guilty Thursday in Kamloops provincial court to one count of driving with a blood-alcohol content over 0.08.
Court heard Mounties in Ashcroft were called to a report of a single-vehicle crash on Cornwall Road at about 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2023.
Crown prosecutor Evan Goulet said officers arrived to find a minivan in the ditch. Stepanow, who was in the driver’s seat, was “visibly intoxicated,” according to police.
Stepanow had three other people in the van with him. No one was injured in the crash.
Breath tests showed Stepanow had a blood-alcohol level higher than 0.20 — more than double the legal limit to drive.
Stepanow, who lives on the Skeetchestn reserve, has a criminal record including eight prior convictions for impaired driving. Most of those were in the 1980s, a few were in the 1990s and the most recent one came in 2001.
Defence lawyer James Ross said Stepanow succumbed to peer pressure on the day of the crash.
“Mr. Stepanow was sober when he started to drive that day,” he said.
"He gave in to temptation and began drinking. He acknowledges that this was a poor decision that he made and he acknowledges the danger that he put others in.”
Kamloops provincial court Judge Lorianna Bennett went along with a joint submission for a 30-day jail sentence plus a three-year driving prohibition.
“You’re lucky you didn’t get killed as a result of this accident, you’re lucky no one in the van with you was killed and you’re extremely lucky no one else was killed that day,” Bennett said.
"You’re putting a lot of innocent people at risk when you get behind the wheel of a vehicle when you’ve been drinking, especially when you have had as much as you did that day."
