By Tyler Marr

AMBER ALERT

Man accused in Amber Alert to learn sentence today

Feb 20, 2019 | 9:00 AM

A young girl with autism and epilepsy was using a tablet in the back of a running Mercedes outside of a strip mall in North Battleford when Johnathan Gunville, wanting to go on a joy ride, hoped in the vehicle.

The theft of the SUV on Sept. 16, with the six-year-old girl still inside, triggered an Amber Alert and spewed search parties across the city to find the young girl.

Fourteen hours later, she was found unharmed inside the vehicle in an industrial park.

The Mercedes was found in an industrial area of North Battleford the next morning. (file photo/CKOM Staff)

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Gunville, who turns 20 today, previously entered guilty pleas to several charges stemming from that night, including theft of a vehicle and abandoning a child. He is expected to be sentenced in provincial court this afternoon.

His defence lawyer Bill Archer is recommending a sentence of 18 months to two years in a provincial corrections facility. At a court hearing last month he suggested Gunville be sent to the Saskatchewan Hospital’’s secure unit.

Gunville didn’t see the girl inside the SUV when he stole it, Archer previously said, and told the court Gunville is low functioning intellectually.

His client, he said, was “in panic mode” after discovering the girl in the back seat before deciding to abandon the vehicle with her still inside.

“He stole a car and didn’t know what do. And he’s scared out of his mind,” Archer said outside court. “Those of us who are more advanced … would go to the RCMP. He’s not capable of that.”

Crown Prosecutor Lee Hnatiuk is recommending Gunville serve three years in custody at a federal penitentiary, saying he is concerned about public safety.

An Amber Alert was issued in September after this Mercedes Benz was stolen outside a strip mall iby Jonathan Gunville in September. (submitted photo/Saskatchewan RCMP)

According to an agreed statement of facts, the SUV was captured on video surveillance travelling on a service road and onto the west-bound lane of Highway 16, into the oncoming traffic lane. The vehicle was later seen on other footage in an industrial area.

After being arrested for another incident involving a stolen truck, Gunville admitted he drove the Mercedes off the road and it became stuck in some brush. He told police he was worried and “thought she might die because the vehicle was hard to find.”

Gunville left on foot and went to a casino to call his father in Lloydminster to pick him up.

Around 4 a.m. the next day, according to the documents, he called in a tip to police and reported he saw “that Mercedes Benz” that night near a bottle depot but did not see who was driving. He said he was calling from Edmonton.

The girl was found at 6:37 a.m. the morning of Sept. 17, unharmed inside the car by three men hooking up trucks to get fertilizer at a potash mine. One of the men saw something unusual in the trees and as they approached, discovered the SUV.

“The windows were fogged up when one the men approached; he feared the worst,” the documents read, “but (the girl) was found in the back seat, alive but out of her car seat.”

The vehicle was not running, it was only 1 Celsius that morning, and the girl was only wearing a T-shirt and pants according to the documents. One of the men grabbed a heavier winter jacket from a nearby workshop and wrapped her in it. She was taken to hospital and cleared a short time later.

In the family’s victim impact statement, they said they were overwrought with worry about their daughter before she was found about 14 hours later. The girl needed to take medication to avoid seizures.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr