The man at the center of a lengthy police standoff last winter has been handed an 18-month conditional sentence, sometimes referred to as house arrest.
Kelly Blake Torvik, 32, will be subject to 27 different conditions during his conditional sentence, including a year of house arrest during which time he will be under electronic monitoring.
Torvik surrendered to police around 1:00 p.m. on February 5, 2018 after a lengthy standoff which forced police to evacuate residents and a block of streets near his home in the 118000 block of Torrent Drive.
Torvik pleaded guilty to five charges, including counts for assaulting and pointing a gun at his mother.
On Tuesday, Crown counsel told a Vernon courtroom that it was a crisis line worker that first reported to police there had been an assault.
Police found Torvik’s mother at the hospital with a bump on her head and a cut on her hand.
According to Crown counsel, she told police her son had pointed a gun at her and at himself, and that he was blaming her for everything that was going wrong in his life.
She also reported her son had pushed her and damaged the interior of the house, including breaking four interior doors.
She said to police that her hand was cut when her son pointed a gun at her and she tried to grab it and point it away from herself.
Torvik’s mother also showed the officer a series of text messages her son had sent to her while she was in the hospital, which the Crown described as abusive.
Crown read Torvik’s texts out in court.
“Guaranteed I ain’t going out alone. I’ve got a really good shot with this gun,” read one text. “I could kill 20 cops before they even get near the house.”
“I want nothing more than to find a reason for somebody to shoot me dead and I know you are my ticket for that. I know you will have to watch me die and I will enjoy that more than anything I’ve experienced in this lifetime,” read another.
But at one point in the text messages he also tells her he loves her.
As a result of the messages, an emergency response team was dispatched and notified that Torvik had expressed interested in suicide by cop.
This touched off the lenghty police standoff on Torrent Drive that ended with Torvik surrendering to police.
A psychiatric report found that Torvik was not suffering from an major mental illnes.
Torvik told a parole officer he doesn’t remember details of what happened because he was under the influence of crystal meth and sleep-deprived at the time.
Crown counsel said mitigating factors included an early guilty plea and Torvik’s desire to pursue substance abuse treatment.
Once Torvik concludes his conditional sentence order, he will be on probation for 12 months. His conditional sentence also restricts the type of contact he can have with his mother.
Four other charges against Torvik were stayed.