Court sentences man to two-year conditional sentence after two-day, high speed, drug-fuelled mental breakdown

A man “experiencing a mental health crisis” who went on a two-day, high-speed, drug-fuelled tear through the West Kootenay last year and rammed an off-duty police officer off the highway was sentenced

Court sentences man to two-year conditional sentence after two-day, high speed, drug-fuelled mental breakdown High speed psychotic break A man “experiencing a mental health crisis” who went on a two-day, high-speed, drug-fuelled tear through the West Kootenay last year and rammed an off-duty police officer off the highway was sentenced today in B.C. Supreme Court in Nelson to a two-year conditional sentence. Jivat Aragon-Martinez, 49, was sentenced to a conditional sentence of a total of two years less a day, to be followed by a probation order of two years, with a driving prohibition of four years, plus the entire period of the conditional sentence, stemming dangerous driving convictions from Aug. 30-31 in the West Kootenay - Boundary last year.

Aragon-Martinez will serve his conditional sentence at Discovery House in Penticton, ruled Hon. Madam Justice Lyster, on Monday. He had been in custody for 175 days in relation to these offences.

Aragon-Martinez was clearly suffering from psychosis on both days, the judge found. “He was acting under the influence of delusional beliefs. On the evidence before me, his psychosis was likely substance induced, although there likely is some underlying mental health disorder,” Justice Lyster stated.

The psychotic element reduced Aragon-Martinez’s moral culpability, although not as much as it would do had drugs not been involved in triggering the psychosis. Aragon-Martinez’s guilty plea was considered a mitigating circumstance, as was his limited driving record and no previous criminal record. The judge ruled that his conduct on both days was linked to a single mental health breakdown.

The Crown had sought jail time since Aragon-Martinez lacked “insight with respect to his offending behaviour, referring to Mr. Aragon-Martinez blaming D. and their relationship in the reports, and the inconsistencies between his self-reporting of matters like when he was first admitted to psychiatric care and what the records show to have in fact been the case.” The defence relied on several arguments, including “had Mr. Aragon-Martinez not been consumed by delusions that he was being chased by terrorists, he would not have driven in the egregiously dangerous manner he did.”

As well, defence argued that “when there are aggravating factors, namely no injury but high-risk driving, a prison sentence of six to 18 months is quite common, along with a two to three-year driving prohibition and probation.” Aragon-Martinez had consumed psilocybin at some point before operating his vehicle on the nights in question, and was either impaired by psilocybin or experiencing a mental health crisis related to his use of that substance, according to the court submissions. There was a detectable level of psilocybin in his blood, police found.

Aragon-Martinez had admitted to the two days of dangerous driving in late August in his black Honda Ridgeline. The first incident was on Aug. 30 on Highway 3 in Grand Forks, when he was observed passing multiple vehicles at excessive speed in the opposing oncoming lane, forcing multiple vehicles travelling in the opposite direction to pull off the road to avoid a collision. A man who attempted to take a picture of Aragon-Martinez’ vehicle to send to police instead drew his rage, with Aragon-Martinez driving straight into the right rear side panel of the man’s vehicle, pushing it on to Highway 3.

The next day, Aragon-Martinez — while wearing a white helmet — around 9 a.m., was driving at an excessive speed on Caughlin Road in Fruitvale. The Honda was then seen by multiple members of the public travelling from Fruitvale to Nelson through Trail and Castlegar and other smaller communities along the way — a total distance of 90 kilometres. The Honda travelled through multiple traffic lights and stop signs, and failed to stop when required on multiple occasions and was reported to be travelling at approximately 160 to 170 kilometres per hour.

As Aragon-Martinez neared Nelson he collided with a vehicle operated by an off-duty RCMP officer on Highway 3A and Reibin Road. The officer lost control of his vehicle after the collision, but he was able to regain control and avoid going over a cliff. Aragon-Martinez failed to remain at the scene of the collision and accelerated towards Nelson, the vehicle’s engine was smoking and steaming with the hood fully open and peeled back up over the windshield.

The windshield was completely obstructed from the hood and numerous cracks while Aragon-Martinez was observed looking through the driver’s side window to navigate. The Honda was caught on multiple dash cameras, three of which were shown in court and one of those recorded the collision. At approximately 9:45 a.m., the Honda collided with a median, lost control and came to a stop after colliding with a rock face 30 metres east of the intersection between Government Road, Granite Road and Highway 3A/6 in Nelson, with multiple police officers on scene.

Aragon-Martinez exited the Honda, still wearing the white helmet and holding a camouflage backpack. He was arrested but struggled with the arresting officers, and it took two of them to get him under control. “While being arrested and at the detachment, Mr. Aragon-Martinez made multiple statements to police that were not true, coherent or logical, including violent statements directed to officers and himself,” court documents showed.

“While in cells he screamed, kicked and punched the cell door. He urinated on the floor.” The four extra large plastic bags containing a total of 795.6 grams of psilocybin were found in the backpack.

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