Convicted murderer who rammed police in stolen truck released

KELOWNA – A convicted murderer who Justice Peter Rogers calls a 'serial criminal' will be released from custody later today despite using a stolen truck to ram a police car just one year after being released from prison.

Daniel Mader, 31, was sentenced to time served Wednesday in Kelowna Supreme Court. He pleaded guilty to four of five crimes committed during a dramatic flight from police in a stolen truck last December.

Mader, who served eight and a half years in prison for killing Jody Elliot in 2005, admitted to ramming an unmarked police car last year when police spotted him driving a stolen pickup. He also broke through a chain-link fence, jumped a sidewalk and crossed two lanes of traffic before fleeing east on Highway 33.

Police found the stolen truck at Mader’s home in Rutland Dec. 6 and Mader himself was arrested wearing a blonde wig later that day on Dilworth Drive.

He was given credit for 765 days of time spent in custody awaiting sentencing and an overall sentence of 18 months. He will be released from custody later today on two years’ probation.

"His past has been to date a serial criminal… without attachment to society… but he is still relatively young," Rogers said. "There is at least a possibility that Mader may be able to change the course of his life.”

To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.