GEORGETOWN, P.E.I. — A P.E.I. man who rolled a vehicle while driving drunk and spit on a man he had previously committed crimes with was sentenced recently to 60 days in jail.
William David Sturgess appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Georgetown for sentencing on charges of impaired driving, assault and breaching an undertaking.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Nathan Beck told the court that on April 27, Sturgess and his girlfriend were drinking at a residence with other people when he became intoxicated and aggressive.
The other people made several attempts to stop Sturgess and his girlfriend from leaving.
Beck said Sturgess rolled the vehicle he was driving in Commercial Cross and the police found two whiskey bottles at the scene.
Sturgess was in an agitated state and not cooperative with staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he was taken for treatment, Beck said.
The court heard the police couldn’t take breath samples because of Sturgess’s behaviour.
Sturgess was released on an undertaking, which included a condition he abstain from drinking alcohol.
In a separate incident on June 5, Beck said Jonathan Compton was in a vehicle in Montague when Sturgess approached and told him to roll down his window.
Sturgess, who had a beer in his hand, spit on Compton and told the man he would kill him, Beck said.
Compton and Sturgess were both sentenced in 2011 to six years in prison after their attempts to go to a Dieppe strip club led to a crime spree that included trying to rob an Irving Big Stop, getting lost on the way to Moncton and setting a stolen car on fire.
Beck said Sturgess was released from prison in 2014.
Along with the jail time, which Sturgess will serve on weekends so he can continue to work, he must pay a $1,500 fine and is banned from driving for one year.
Sturgess will also be on probation for 18 months.
