A man involved in a 2023 Metro Vancouver police chase with a stolen truck has been sentenced to 729 days in jail after pleading guilty to multiple offences.
Kelly Dean, 33, pleaded guilty to three of five offences:
• possessing a stolen truck near Hope on May 13, 2023;
• on the same day, failing to stop for police pursuing him in Mission, Maple Ridge and Hope; and,
• again on May 13, 2023, operating a vehicle in Mission, Maple Ridge and Hope while being prohibited from driving.
Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Nancy Adams passed sentence April 3, giving Dean 303 days for time spent in custody before sentencing.
Dean has a remaining 424 days left to serve of the sentence.
Dean had also been charged with dangerous driving in Mission, Maple Ridge, Vancouver, Burnaby and Hope and with assaulting a police officer in Hope, both allegedly on May 13, 2023.
Dean pleaded guilty to the three charges Jan. 11.
Dramatic chase
In May 2023, Mission RCMP said the erratic nature of the driving led to involvement of a police helicopter.
Police said officers had begun surveillance of a Ford F150 on May 13, 2023. The vehicle had been stolen in Coquitlam a month earlier.
As officers watched, the truck was travelling on the Lougheed Highway from Mission to Maple Ridge.
“The stolen vehicle turned down a dead-end street in Maple Ridge with officers attempting another traffic stop, with the driver of the truck accelerating through some lawns and front yards of residential homes,” police said.
It was then that the helicopter became involved as the truck continued through Maple Ridge, Surrey, Coquitlam, Burnaby and then onto Vancouver.
It then turned and headed back to the Fraser Valley with the chopper overhead.
Near Hope’s Hunter Creek Road area, the truck collided with a police surveillance vehicle. A short time after that, the truck entered a small pipeline tunnel under construction.
An Abbotsford Police Department officer then deployed several non-lethal beanbag rounds, striking the suspect several times leading to his arrest.
