Gyurkovits sentenced to four years
By Kyra Hoggan
A Castlegar man was sentenced Friday, in a Nelson court, to four years in prison after pleading guilty to nine charges stemming from two dramatic altercations with local police.
Kelly Lee Gyurkovits, 39, was convicted of breach of probation, assault causing bodily harm, escaping lawful custody, flight (from police pursuit), theft (of a police car) … a total of nine charges, reduced from the original 16 charges levied against him.
The charges came in connection with two dramatic and widely-publicized situations, the first of which occurred on Aug. 12 of last year, when Gyurkovits attempted to evade arrest by stealing a police patrol car, with which he subsequently ran over a Castlegar RCMP officer. The officer suffered a broken foot, but has since recovered and is back in uniform. This situation sparked the first police-involved gunfire within city limits in well over a decade.
The second incident occurred just last month, after an alleged assault (by Guyrkovits) led to two police chases (one in Castlegar, that police broke off rather than jeopardize the safety of other motorists on Highway 3, and a second in Trail, where RCMP picked up pursuit) and a stand-off that ended in the suspect throwing himself from a Trail bridge.
Gyurkovits was pulled from the water by a Trail Search and Rescue boat, taken to hospital and released into police custody, where he remained until Friday’s sentencing.
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