A Penticton man is spending the better part of the next two years in custody after he pleaded guilty to a kidnapping charge in Penticton Provincial Court Monday.
Albert Edgar Fontaine, 40, was sentenced to three years jail time, minus pre-trial custody credit, after he pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of using an imitation firearm to commit an indictable offence on Monday.
Fontaine’s co-accused, John Szanto, Kerry Ellis and Carey Anderson are set for a jury trial in June. A common law publication ban was ordered by Judge Greg Koturbash which prohibits the publication of the circumstances, evidence or reasons for judgment heard during Fontaine’s sentencing until the conclusion of the trial.
RCMP told the Western News in 2015 that a 37-year-old Penticton man was kidnapped and seriously assaulted in the early morning hours of May 21, 2015 and the victim was found in a ditch by a motorist on Shingle Creek Road with a broken leg and restraints on his hands.
Fontaine was sentenced to nine months in jail in March for an unrelated break and enter near the Apex Mountain Resort.
Fontaine was sentenced to three years in a joint submission between defence counsel Norm Yates and Crown counsel Kurt Froehlich, with just under two years remaining after pre-trial custody credit.
Fontaine has 27 prior convictions on his criminal record including three weapons-related offences.
Szanto, who was sentenced to three years jail for a robbery and kidnapping in 2010, was also found guilty of an unrelated assault on March 14, 2015 and sentenced to three years in jail which he is currently serving.
Fontaine has been in custody since he was arrested on July 1 in the Lower Mainland.