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Infamous Penticton criminal Thomas Kruger-Allen pleads guilty to charges in relation to attempted home invasion

Kruger-Allen pleads guilty

An infamous Penticton criminal pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to charges related to an attempted home invasion, and was sentenced to a total of 12 months in prison. But the new sentence will not put him behind bars for longer than he is currently serving.

Thomas Kruger-Allen, 24, appeared on video from the Okanagan Correctional Centre where he is serving out his five year sentence for a brutal attack on Okanagan Beach that left a stranger in a coma in August 2019.

Kruger-Allen has roughly two and a half years left on his sentence.

While a trial was expected to go forward this fall for separate charges incurred after the beach attack, Kruger-Allen instead pleaded guilty Tuesday to mischief, uttering threats and breaching court-ordered conditions related to a home invasion in October of 2019.

Kruger-Allen was sentenced to 12 months in prison for mischief, three months in prison for uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm and one month in prison in regards to breach of curfew, all of which was a joint submission from Crown and defence. These sentences will all be served concurrently with his present sentence.

Crown counsel John Swanson led the courtroom through the details of the incident on Oct. 19, 2019, while Kruger-Allen was out on bail for the charges related to the earlier beach attack.

Late in the evening of Oct. 18 into the early morning hours of the next day, Kruger-Allen and his ex-girlfriend, Taylor Clarke, were communicating with each other by telephone.

As a result of that conversation, Kruger-Allen left his home and went to Clarke’s home at around 2:30 a.m., well outside of his set curfew hours.

Once he got to the residence, there was a small group of people already there, socializing and drinking alcohol. Kruger-Allen was familiar with some of those people, including his cousin.

Kruger-Allen had also been consuming alcohol.

“When Mr. Kruger-Allen arrived at Miss Taylor Clarke's residence, he discovered that the door had been locked and he was not granted access to the apartment. He was being refused access. That made him angry,” Swanson explained.

He then banged hard on the outside window, causing it to break. As a result, there was a 'great deal' of broken glass inside Clarke's apartment and around the window.

The party residents became upset with Allan and exchange strong words, yelling and swearing at each other.

At one point, Kruger-Allen told his ex-girlfriend “He was going to kill her."

While Kruger-Allen did not enter the apartment, he did damage some of the apartment furniture while breaking the window.

Then Kruger-Allen was repeatedly hit by one of the party goers who was punching him through the broken window.

A 911 call was made to police and Kruger-Allen called a taxi that took him home, and dropped off at around 2:48 a.m.

RCMP were dispatched to the ex-girlfriend's apartment, investigated the incident and also attended Kruger-Allen's residence, where they forcibly arrested him.

RCMP did not have a warrant for his arrest, but a Charter challenge regarding the circumstance of the arrest was dismissed.

Following his arrest, Kruger-Allen asked to speak to his counsel, but the police did not provide him an opportunity to do so, according to the Crown.

Defence counsel Joanna Kelly pointed out that none of those civilian witnesses at the party were willing to cooperate. Missing witnesses stalled the start of the trial in Penticton in the spring and throughout the summer.

Kelly stated that there are many people within the OCC that are rooting for Kruger-Allen and have seen him improve.

“One of the driving features of Mr. Kruger-Allen's desire to answer a plea, and not to roll the dice and in trial, see if the witnesses come or not, is that he doesn't want to put these people through the ordeal of having to make that decision. And neither does he want to put these friends and relatives in the position of having to be cross-examined,” she added.

The judge agreed with the reasoning presented from defence and Crown, handing down the 12 month jail sentence, wishing Kruger-Allen "all the best." Three counts of assault were stayed.



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