An Alberta man who has admitted to a reckless trip on Highway 3A should receive 2½ to three years in jail and lose his license for five to 10 years, Crown counsel told a BC Supreme Court judge in Nelson today.
A sentencing hearing was held for Jivat Aragon-Martinez, who has pleaded guility to two counts of dangerous driving and possession of illegal drugs. He has been in custody since late November, when his bail was revoked. His lawyer is calling for a sentence of time served plus probation.
Aragon-Martinez’s trip from Trail to Nelson at extremely high speeds in August 2024 ended after his pick-up truck hit a rock face on Highway 3A just west of Nelson.
One witness told police Aragon-Martinez almost rear-ended their car, then swung out into the opposite lane, and barely missed an oncoming pickup near Thrums. Police said the truck also collided with the back of another vehicle and kept going.
Crown prosecutor Keven Schecter told Justice Lindsay Lyster that Aragon-Martinez was on psilocybin at the time and in the midst of a mental health breakdown that left him delusional.
Schecter said a pre-sentence report found Aragon-Martinez has a history of drug use and violence and is likely to reoffend if he fails to find stable housing, continues to use drugs, and goes into psychosis.
The second count of dangerous driving that Aragon-Martinez admitted to relates to a separate incident the same month in Grand Forks in which he aimed his vehicle at a cab, resulting in damages and minor injuries.
Schecter said aggravating factors in the Highway 3A incident including the distance Aragon-Martinez travelled, the number of people he frightened and put at risk, and the amount of traffic on the road given the time of day.
He said mitigating factors were Aragon-Martinez’s guilty plea, steps he’s taken toward rehabiliation, and his lack of a criminal record prior to August 2024.
A month after crashing his vehicle, Aragon-Martinez was charged with assault with a weapon and uttering threats in Nelson, for which he received 18 months probation. He was also charged with assault, theft, uttering threats, and breach of release in Kelowna in March 2025, and received another 18 months probation.
Schecter argued that Aragon-Martinez should receive a total of 2½ to three years in jail for the driving and drug offences, minus time already spent in custody, and argued that it should not be served as a conditional sentence order, which amounts to house arrest.
Schecter also called for a five-to-10-year driving ban and suggested that if a jail sentence of less than two years is imposed, it should be followed by probation.
He said there are “severe consequences” when Aragon-Martinez “falls into his offending behavior that puts others at risk. He’s fortunate that no one was seriously hurt in either incident, most surprisingly him.”
Defence responds
Defense counsel Daniel McNamee presented letters of support from Aragon-Martinez’s sister, one of his sons, and an assistant deputy warden at Okanagan Correction Centre, who indicated Aragon-Martinez has taken programming and counselling while in custody and is a peer support worker.
McNamee said Aragon-Martinez was orphaned in Mexico, raised by grandparents, and then came to Canada, where he worked as a welder, “lived a pro-social life, raised children, and had a lot of positive things to impart on his son.”
However, Aragon-Martinez lost his job, split from his partner of 20 years, and ended up on the streets, McNamee said. The court was told contradictory information exists on when Aragon-Martinez began using drugs, including psilocybin and crystal meth.
Aragon-Martinez is hoping to get into a substance treatment facility in Penticton, which offers second-stage housing afterward, but court heard that while he is on a waitlist, no bed has been available for him and he wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of one anyway because he’s in jail.
However, McNamee said Aragon-Martinez has been calling the facility daily since October to demonstrate his continued interest.
McNamee said it’s unclear what his client’s psychiatric disorder is, or if he even has one that’s unrelated to drug use, but Aragon-Martinez seems to have continuing delusions when he is sober, including conspiratorial beliefs.
If Aragon-Martinez is homeless and relapsing, he is a high risk to reoffend, the defence lawyer agreed, but added the “court can have some faith that he won’t immediately relapse” because he has taken programs in jail and has a plan of where to go.
The judge said she had difficulty with the “concreteness” of that plan, suggesting it was more of a hope or desire, especially given that a treatment bed hasn’t been available. Aragon-Martinez’s short-term plan is to live in a shelter in Penticton until a bed opens up, McNamee said.
McNamee said a conditional sentence order would be appropriate given that his client has spent some time in jail, that his actions stemmed from mental health issues and substance use, and that they didn’t cause serious bodily harm. He argued more jail time would be an “excessive penalty” that would allow the “extreme dangerousness” of Aragon-Martinez’s driving to outweigh other factors.
Accused speaks
Aragon-Martinez, who appeared by video from prison, told the court he has had a lot of time to reflect on his actions and understands what “it has cost me and the public and my family.”
He said he was grateful for the staff at the Okanagan Correctional Centre for helping him. “I’m really looking forward to starting a new stage of my life involving sobriety which I know I can do,” he said.
Aragon-Martinez, who was born in 1976, has four children, the youngest of whom is 16. He said he spoke with his oldest son on the phone this week.
“Having failed them in such a way is the biggest punishment,” he said. “I’m very sorry for what I did. I hope that I can have another chance to keep proving to my children that I’m a good man. It’s very important to me.”
The judge will hand down her decision on July 10.
