In Court of Queen’s Bench in Yorkton, Hunter Arnold was sentenced following being found guilty of two charges of dangerous driving causing death.
The charges stem from a collision on Sept. 24, 2016 which killed two men, Tyler Dobko, 29, and Jordan Stoll, 17. Arnold was airlifted by STARS air ambulance to Regina with serious injuries and spent several weeks in hospital in Saskatoon. Arnold suffered severe nerve damage, multiple broken bones and heavy blood loss due to the collision.
Arnold was sentenced to a period of one year in prison, followed by one year of probation and 75 hours of community service. The sentence was a “near” joint submission between the crown and defence, with the only point of contention being whether a driving prohibition should be placed on Arnold following his custodial sentence. A driving prohibition was not part of the sentence.
While much of the case law submitted in sentencing had sentences of 18 months, Judge J.D. Kalmakoff noted that the extent of the injuries experienced by Arnold, and his continued treatment for those injuries, would make a prison term more onerous for him than it would for someone in good health. The case is also on the low end for the offence due to the low likelihood to reoffend, Arnold’s otherwise fairly clean driving record, and the fact that this is his only criminal charge on record. However, due to two people dying due to the offence, the only appropriate sentence would involve a period of incarceration.
At the end of submissions, Prosecutor Andrew Wyatt expressed that he wanted to make it clear that the decision to proceed with charges and the trial was his alone, based on the facts of the case, and was not influenced in any way by the victims’ families. Justice Kalmakoff added that the popularity or unpopularity of the verdict or the defendant would not be a factor in the sentence.
