One of the country’s most incorrigible drunk drivers received an unfairly long jail term for his 23rd offence because “the principles of sentencing were tinkered with,” his lawyer has argued in an appeal.
For decades, Terry Naugle received short sentences for repeated impaired-driving offences. But last year, Nova Scotia Provincial Court Judge Frank Hoskins handed down an 8½-year sentence for impaired driving, fleeing the scene of an accident and driving while suspended.
Mr. Naugle had been out of prison only three weeks when he was arrested on those charges.
Defence lawyer Luke Craggs acknowledged to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal on Wednesday that his client may be a dangerous man. But he argued that Judge Hoskins went beyond his authority in sentencing Mr. Naugle to five years for drunk driving and then adding time for the other two charges.
“It offended the principle of totality by going beyond the five-year maximum for the impaired-driving offence,” he told reporters after court. “The 8½ years is, in my submission, 3½ years longer than the judge could’ve imposed given the current law.”
Mr. Naugle was not in court on Wednesday, but a member of the family he hit in his most recent offence was there. And she said she believes the judges need to take a firm stand.
“It’s not taken seriously enough,” Julia McMillan told reporters. “And Terry Naugle, if we can’t take him seriously enough, then our Canadian system is flawed.”
In his own presentation to the court, Crown attorney Mark Scott rejected the defence lawyer’s argument. “There’s nothing that Parliament says to support Mr. Craggs’s premise,” he said.
Because of his past offences, Mr. Naugle could have received the maximum of five years simply for being pulled over while driving drunk, Mr. Scott said. He showed disrespect for the court by flouting an earlier order not to drive, and disregard for people he might have hurt by fleeing the scene of the accident, the Crown said.
“I’ve never seen a case like this,” Mr. Scott said. “[He has] truly an atrocious and alarming record.”
The judges reserved their decision.
Mr. Naugle has a string of convictions going back to 1978. He has been convicted of 23 impaired-driving offences and 15 times for driving while disqualified.
In his latest driving infraction, Mr. Naugle hit the McMillans’ sport utility vehicle when the family was returning from Halifax to their home in rural Nova Scotia. Their automobile had run out of fuel, and Dave McMillan had gone to fetch gas while his wife Julia and daughter Jillian remained in it, pulled to the side of an on-ramp. They were belted in and the hazard flashers were on, they say.
Mr. McMillan was jogging back with a gas can when Mr. Naugle’s car glanced off the SUV and continued driving with a blown tire. Mr. McMillan refuelled quickly and gave chase. They caught up with Mr. Naugle at a nearby service station, where police officers who happened to be there arrested him.
Only at the police station later did the family learn that Mr. Naugle was well known to the authorities.
“They said, ‘Oh yeah, we have a nickname for him; the police know him as Super-Naugle,’” Ms. McMillan remembered. “He's super at what he does: drinking and driving.”
