A 28-year-old man has been handed a 14-month jail sentence and 18 months’ probation for a bizarre carjacking at a Burnaby townhouse complex last August.
On the afternoon of Aug. 7, 2021, Attila Kemeny showed up looking for drugs at the Concordia Court townhouse complex on McPherson Avenue wearing only sweatpants and a hospital gown with no shirt, according to agreed facts presented in court.
He went to one of the townhouses and began pounding loudly on the patio door, scaring residents, including three young women who had crossed paths with him on their way to their car, according to the facts.
They ran to the vehicle, and an 18-year-old woman, who had recently gotten the 2008 Mercedes as a birthday present, jumped into the driver’s seat.
To her horror, Kemeny got into the passenger seat and started grabbing the steering wheel, eventually thrusting the five-foot, 110-pound woman out of the driver’s side door.
He then took off at “extreme velocity” and totalled the Mercedes a couple blocks away by crashing it into a pole.
Kemeny was originally charged with robbery in relation to the incident but pleaded guilty in January to assault and theft instead.
Crown prosecutor Violet Allard had argued Kemeny should be sentenced to 15 months in prison and 18 months’ probation, while defence lawyer David Hopkins had recommended he be sentenced to time served and probation.
Both lawyers agreed rehabilitation, including drug treatment, was an important consideration in sentencing.
B.C. provincial court Judge Nancy Adams agreed.
On Friday, she sentenced Kemeny to 14 months’ jail and 18 months of probation.
That leaves six weeks on his jail sentence after credit for time served since his arrest last August.
Adams said the incident was “basically a carjacking case” and the jail term could have been longer.
“It was alarming to all who witnessed it,” she said.
Adams noted Kemeny had a criminal record, including five robbery convictions, and a very serious opioid addiction that had fueled many of his crimes.
But Adams also noted Kemeny had entered early guilty pleas, taken responsibility for his actions and shown a willingness to get help for his drug problem.
She said the two most important sentencing factors in the case were public protection and rehabilitation, and her probation order was designed to employ “the greatest number of resources” to help Kemeny battle his addiction.
During his probation, he will be required to live at a Surrey recovery house and follow all the rules there.
He will also be required to participate in programs, including violence-prevention, alcohol- or drug-addiction and mental-health programs, as directed by his probation officer.
Kemeny is also banned from the Concordia Court townhouse complex and from contacting any of the young women involved in the incident.
“I cannot direct the probation officer to do it, but, in my view … it’s to the benefit of Mr. Kemeny and certainly to the benefit of the community that the probation officer exercises careful, close and consistent supervision of him, recognizing that he has a serious drug addiction and possibly mental health and cognitive challenges.”
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