The Crown is going forward with its application to label a South Okanagan man with the dangerous offender status, which could put him in jail for the rest of his life.
Kurt Froehlich told the court Wednesday the Crown has obtained the written consent of the Attorney General Suzanne Anton to commence an application to have Ronald Arthur Teneycke, 52, declared a dangerous offender, which has the possibility of resulting in an indeterminate sentence.
Froehlich did not disclose whether or not it was the psychological evaluations previously ordered for Teneycke that led to the dangerous offender application going forward, adding the “evidence will come out at the hearing.”
The application was submitted by then Crown counsel Murray Kaay after Teneycke pleaded guilty to armed robbery, discharging a firearm with the intent to wound, committing a robbery with a restricted firearm and flight from a peace officer in April.
Teneycke is the second South Okanagan individual in six years to have a dangerous offender application put forward against him, the other being David Wesley Bobbitt — who was sent to jail indefinitely in 2011 after the brutal sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman.
Teneycke admitted to a crime spree including the armed robbery of the East Side Grocery store in Oliver on July 16 and the shooting of Oliver business owner Wayne Bellville on July 22, 2015 after Bellville had picked him up thinking he was a hitch hiker.
“I only spent five minutes with this guy and he irrevocably changed my life. I’m grateful that I”m being spared the trial, and hopefully will be able to get past this,” Belleville said outside the Penticton Courthouse in April after Teneycke pleaded guilty.
A manhunt began with multiple RCMP units scouring the South Okanagan which led to a chase, concluding in a Cawston orchard where multiple shots were fired prior to Teneycke’s surrender.
Regardless of the dangerous offender application, Teneycke faces a minimum of five years for armed robbery and a minimum of four years for shooting with the intent to wound.
The next appearance for Teneycke is Sept. 19 with the Judicial Case Manager, where a future date is to be scheduled for a hearing on the application.