Crown wants jail time for B.C. hit-and-run driver who violated house arrest

Crown prosecutors say a B.C. man who fled the scene of a deadly hit-and-run three years ago should spend time behind bars for violating the conditions of his house arrest sentence for the crash.

Marcel Genaille pleaded guilty last year to leaving the scene of a June 2021 collision that left 59-year-old James ‘Mark’ Peters dead.

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Earlier this year, he was handed an 18-month conditional sentence which included eight months of house arrest. The sentence’s conditions included an exemption for him to leave home for work and for medical appointments.

Genaille has admitted to breaching two terms of his conditional sentence order (CSO).

On Wednesday, the Crown told Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Andrea Brownstone that police found Genaille in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in Surrey on Sept. 27. Genaille was a prohibited driver at the time, and had not had car insurance since February.

“He’s unbelievable,” Crown prosecutor Mark Myhre told the court.

Myhre said police spotted Genaille at a Surrey gas station at 10:45 p.m., more than four hours after his curfew and 1.5 km away from his home.

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He then left the gas station and drove east on 108 Avenue and south on 152 Street, away from his Surrey address, Myhre added.

The court also heard from Genaille’s probation officer Jill Bemish, who recounted several times he was late for deadlines to check in with her.

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“Mr. Genaille appeared tired of being bound by court conditions,” she testified.

Bemish told the court Genaille reported moving into a new unit in Surrey in late August, and that he had never told her he was struggling with homelessness.

Genaille testified he had been evicted from an apartment in August, and struggled to find housing that would accept his pets.

He said he eventually found a place in late September but had been without a fixed address until then.

“I would bounce around, sleep in my car,” he told the court.

“I may have been careless,” he testified, with regard to telling his probation officer about finding housing in August.

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The Crown argued the conditional sentence order should be terminated, and that Genaille should spend 15 months in jail.

Myhre said Genaille misled his probation officer by not saying where he was living between the end of August and September and displayed a “cavalier attitude” to the sentence that had spared him jail time.

Genaille’s lawyer, Tony Lagemaat, argued that if the conditional sentence were allowed to stand, Genaille could be monitored electronically.

“I was careless … I do take responsibility,” Genaille told the court, adding that he was “sorry for the choices I made that brought me here.”

He added that if he was put back on the CSO “I will not mess that up” and that “I’ll be where I’m supposed to be at all times.”

Judge Brownstone has reserved her decision in the case.

At his original sentencing hearing for the hit-and-run, the court heard that Genaille struck Peters’ motorbike at a red light, throwing the victim 17 metres.

Genaille fled the scene, leaving his bumper and licence plate behind, before eventually abandoning the vehicle.

The court heard that Genaille initially went to Burnaby RCMP after the collision, but denied involvement. Instead, he claimed he’d been at his recovery house that night.