By Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative, Telegraph-Journal
A 27-year-old St. Stephen man arrested in December after police say he led police on a low-speed chase against traffic on Route 1 has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Kody John Hiltz was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to 16 charges including dangerous driving and driving while pursued. Police said they had arrested Hiltz and another man Dec. 10 after the vehicle they were in fled police and was stopped with a shotgun and body armour inside.
“Anybody sitting in this court or reading or looking at this would certainly be disturbed by your actions,” said Saint John provincial court Judge Kelly Ann Winchester, saying that pursuing officers had been put in harm’s way. “This certainly rises to the level that has to be denounced.”
In court, Crown prosecutor Chris Titus said that police were driving west on Route 1 towards St. Stephen at 2 a.m. on Dec. 10 when they saw a Ford SUV driving slow with flashing lights on. Because the car’s licence plate was obscured by snow, they initiated a traffic stop, but the vehicle kept going despite lights and sirens, Titus said.
The prosecutor said the SUV was driving between 50 and 104 kilometres per hour and that officers were able to pull alongside to see two people inside. Titus said the SUV then turned into the oncoming lane of the separated highway using an emergency turning access. After about 25 kilometres, he said police used a spike strip, but the SUV continued at a low rate of speed between 30 and 50 km/h.
Titus said a person was observed pouring gasoline out of the window of the SUV and police believed they saw the person attempt to spark a lighter, allegedly in an attempt to ignite a gasoline trail, with a “high potential … to cause harm or death” to police. Police then notified the fire department and ambulance service to be on standby, court heard.
When the vehicle, by this point slowing to 10 to 20 km/h, turned off the highway onto the Church Street exit into St. Stephen, Titus said a police vehicle was struck and the SUV continued driving down side streets before it was stopped on Upper Mill Road, Titus said.
Officers on foot surrounded the vehicle and struck the windows before removing the driver, Hiltz, and taking him to the ground with resistance, Titus said. Police said they found a shotgun and 19 shells, one of which was loaded, a gas tank with a hose, an axe, body armour, a club, masks and wigs, and allege that the vehicle was stolen.
Patrick Thomas Harris, 40, the alleged passenger, also faces eight charges in the incident, including assaulting police with gasoline and possession charges related to the shotgun and the stolen car. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in August.
Hiltz had been on probation and prohibited from possessing weapons as part of a sentence for a firearms arrest in 2023 that led to a shelter-in-place warning being issued for the area of Moores Mills, north of St. Stephen. He had been sentenced to 15 months less 11 months time served after being found guilty of four charges including assault with a shotgun and dangerous driving dating to Oct. 10, 2023.
The current charges against Hiltz also included resisting an officer on his arrest for that file on Oct. 14, 2023, and taking a vehicle, as well as a probation violations in Sept. 2023.
Titus said the December incident, accounting for 11 of the charges, “ratchets up the sentence,” calling the circumstances of the case “quite alarming.” He said a three- to five-year sentence would be appropriate.
Charles Bryant, Hiltz’ lawyer, said that unlike past cases, his client has taken more responsibility and has renewed contact with family, saying there’s “a degree of hope for his life after” the sentence. He said that his client was couchsurfing at the time and the “circumstances kept drugs in front of him.” He said that a three-year sentence would appropriately recognize the seriousness of the offence.
Hiltz told the court that he has a carpentry job lined up with a family member if he stays clean, and told Winchester that he “wants to continue living” and that his father has offered to build him a house on a property in his name.
The defendant said that at the time of the offence he had stayed at a friend’s camp for five days and had asked for a ride home, but took over driving when his friend fell asleep at the wheel. When he saw police, he had the “instinct to run,” he told the judge, and he said the gun wasn’t his, though Winchester noted it was in the car all the same.
Winchester acknowledged that Hiltz had pleaded guilty, was youthful, had family support and was dealing with addictions, but said that the offences were serious and had to be denounced, and noted his criminal record.
“It would have been so simple just to stop that vehicle,” Winchester said.
Hiltz was given two years for dangerous driving, one year for breaching a driving prohibition, six months for carelessly carrying a shotgun, six months for possession of a shotgun for a purpose dangerous to the public peace and six months for resisting the officers, with the other offences handled concurrently. He was subject to a three-year driving ban and a lifetime firearms ban, and a forfeiture item was made on the items in the car.
