A Saskatchewan man who triggered an Amber Alert when he stole a running SUV with a disabled girl in the backseat has been sentenced to nearly 31 months in jail.
On Wednesday, on his 20th birthday, Johnathan Gunville learned his fate after pleading guilty at an earlier court appearance to abandoning the child, driving while disqualified, auto theft and dangerous driving.
His lawyer has described Gunville as a six year old, if not younger. He has a Grade 3 education and intellectual disabilities.
Lawyer Bill Archer said his client wasn’t roaming around kidnapping children, instead, Gunville was drawn to a shiny Mercedes Benz and stole it not knowing there was a child inside.
“No matter how you shake this out, this case is sad,” Archer said.
“I think I’ve said this before, but there was two kids in that car that day and one of them is going to jail for a considerably long period of time and that’s understandable.”
With credit for time served, Gunville still has two years less a day remaining in his sentence.
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The six-year-old girl had been left in the back of her parents’ SUV when Gunville stole it last September from outside a North Battleford, Sask., strip mall.
The girl, who is autistic, epileptic and non-verbal requires life-saving medication every 12 hours.
She was found unharmed 14 hours later, still strapped into the backseat of the SUV, a few kilometres away in North Battleford’s industrial area.
The judge told the court she was found only by chance. Gunville stole two vehicles in the days that followed and has 30 convictions on his record.
“I think that the court looked at all the factors available to it and came to a decision the court felt was appropriate,” Crown prosecutor Lee Hnatiuk said.
Provincial court judge Bruce Bauer recommended that Gunville complete addictions programming, see a psychiatrist and serve time at the Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford.
Gunville also received three years of probation once he is released and faces a five-year driving ban.
This sentence means he will be spared from serving time at a federal institution, like the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where Archer thought Gunville would be eaten alive.
“Some members of the public, the more extreme elements of the public, would feel the only price we should be paying is a rope to hang him with,” Archer said.
“That’s not Canada. Canada is about hope. Our justice system is about hope and we can’t abandon that.”
Bauer recommended Gunville serve the remainder of his sentence at the Saskatchewan Hospital where the 20-year-old has been treated before. This decision will ultimately be up to Correctional Service Canada.
-With files from The Canadian Press
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