A North Okanagan man with a lengthy criminal history has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a man he’d been hanging out with one night nearly three years earlier.
Jevon Smith, 49, was to stand trial for the second-degree murder of Damien Samoleski in September 2021 but last week he pleaded guilty to the lesser included offence of manslaughter with a firearm, according to the BC Prosecution Service.
He was sentenced last week to 1,764 days in jail. This is after serving 892 days of pre-sentence custody, credited as 1,338 days. The effective sentence is therefore 3,102 days, or approximately 8.5 years.
The court also imposed a lifetime firearms prohibition, a forfeiture order, and a DNA order.
Samoleski’s body was found in a gravel pit on Back Enderby Road, northwest of Armstrong, on Sept. 20, 2021. The discovery prompted a manhunt and Smith was later found.
BC Court Services Online indicates that Smith’s criminal record goes back to 2013 and includes motor vehicle offences, weapons charges and break and enters.