West Kelowna trucker jailed after kicking in front door, threatening to kill ex

A West Kelowna trucker who kicked his ex’s front door in and threatened to kill her will spend the next year and a half in jail, a fraction of what Crown prosecutors wanted.

According to a Dec. 11 BC Supreme Court decision, the Crown had argued Stephen Daniel Hayes should spend the next four and a half years behind bars after he told her “you are a dead woman,” after breaking into her home.

The decision said Hayes and his ex-partner had separated several months earlier, when in February 2024, he arrived at their former West Kelowna home to pick up her teenage son and take him to stay at his place at Big White and go skiing.

However, he arrived at the home in a “very agitated state” and got into a verbal altercation with his former partner outside their home.

He was angry because his ex had been seen standing outside the rink during her kids’ hockey game smoking a cigarette with a man who was an old friend of hers.

“During the verbal altercation, Mr. Hayes repeatedly referred to/called (his ex) by multiple derogatory terms, augmented by profanities,” Justice Briana Hardwick said in the decision.

During the argument, the former partner felt that Hayes wasn’t stable and said he couldn’t take her son to Big White.

At one point, she told him, “you are a dead man,” before heading back into the house and telling her children to go to their rooms and close the door.

“Mr. Hayes made a conscious and deliberate decision to not leave the home… Instead, Mr. Hayes stopped, re‑parked the vehicle, exited the vehicle and approached the home in a hurried pace,” the Justice said.

He then kicked the door in told his former partner she was a dead woman.

He left with her teenage son, and she called the RCMP.

He was arrested two days later. Police then found two loaded guns, which he owned, but one in his nightstand and the other under his bed, at the condo he lived in at Big White.

Hayes was later charged with break and enter to utter a threat, pointing a firearm at his ex, and careless storage of a firearm. He was found guilty by a jury of two of the charges, but acquitted on the allegations he’d pointed a gun at his ex.

He chose not to testify at the trial, and no pre-sentence or psychological reports were ordered to assess him.

The Justice noted that because of this, little was known about Hayes, only that he was in his mid-40s, didn’t have a criminal record and was a self-employed truck driver.

The threats had a lasting impact on the victim, and she feels guilty about not being the same mother she was before.

“She is still struggling emotionally and despite relocating her entire life for what she considered to be necessary for the safety of her family, she continues to be in fear that Mr. Hayes will show up on her doorstep,” the Justice said.

Crown prosecutors argued Hayes should spend the next four-and-a-half years behind bars.

The defence argued he should receive a sentence of time served, as he’d already spent the equivalent of five months in pretrial custody.

Ultimately, Justice Hardwick sentenced Hayes to 22 months in jail, which with time already served means will will spend another 17 months behind bars.