Driver in 2024 Dartmouth drive-by shooting handed 10-year sentence

A young man hugged his family and supporters before he was led away by sheriff’s deputies to begin serving a lengthy prison sentence for his role in a drive-by shooting in Dartmouth.

Trequawn Alvontra Smith, 26, of North Preston stood trial in Dartmouth provincial court on 17 charges from the February 2024 shooting, including attempted murder.

Judge Jill Hartlen delivered the verdict last March, finding Smith guilty on all charges. She said the evidence satisfied her beyond a reasonable doubt that Smith was driving an SUV carrying two passengers that was involved in the shooting and fired some shots himself after the vehicle circled the block and pulled up beside the targeted car again.

Smith’s sentencing hearing got underway Oct. 6, with Crown attorneys Eric Taylor and Greg Morris seeking a prison term of 13 to 15 years less remand credit and defence lawyer Patrick MacEwen arguing for eight years.

Hartlen reserved her decision until Wednesday, when she sentenced Smith on eight charges and stayed the other nine, as recommended by the Crown.

The judge said a 10-year sentence for the main offence of attempted murder would address the primary principles of denunciation and deterrence while also taking into account the principles of rehabilitation, restraint and totality.

She deducted six months from the sentence because of Smith’s onerous release conditions and credited him with 197 days for his time on remand before he got bail in June 2024.

Hartlen imposed concurrent sentences on the seven other charges, which included aggravated assault and six weapons offences.

That left Smith, a first-time offender, with a net sentence of eight years and 348 days.

The judge also ordered Smith to provide a sample of his DNA for a national databank and prohibited him from possessing firearms for the rest of his life.

“Mr. Smith has a high degree of responsibility for these offences,” Hartlen said. “The decision to drive around in the middle of the night with two others with three handguns in the vehicle and shoot at a random stranger in a residential neighbourhood is extremely blameworthy.

“Mr. Smith’s decision to circle around and drive back to the intersection so that (the victim) could be shot at again only heightens Mr. Smith’s blameworthiness. Fleeing the scene to avoid detection is a calculated decision that attracts a high degree of responsibility. Having possession of two loaded Glocks in a vehicle, both of which had bullets chambered, attracts a high degree of responsibility.”

The shooting happened Feb. 19, 2024, at about 3:10 a.m. at the intersection of Catherine Street and Lahey Road in north-end Dartmouth.

Kody Pelrine, 21, was on his way to the airport for a work trip. He was driving his Ford Focus on Catherine Street when he came to a four-way stop, where he observed a westbound black SUV on Lahey Road.

Moments later, the SUV rolled into the middle of the intersection and a passenger in the back seat began firing at Pelrine’s vehicle.

Pelrine saw two people in the front seat of the SUV and noticed that the back passenger-side window was down. He said a head popped up in the back seat and then he saw a grey handgun.

A bullet came through the windshield and struck Pelrine in the forehead.

As the SUV drove away, Pelrine slumped over the centre console of his vehicle and used his cellphone to call 911.

While Pelrine was on the phone, the SUV returned and stopped next to his car. As Pelrine ducked down over the console, more shots were fired at him.

Pelrine then sat up in his seat and drove off, still talking to the 911 operator. He saw two Halifax Regional Police vehicles on Wyse Road and stopped his car in the middle of the street to get the officers’ attention.

Paramedics transported Pelrine to the Halifax Infirmary, where he underwent brain surgery. Metal fragments were removed from his head during the procedure.

When Pelrine woke up after the operation, he had 37 staples across the top of his head and three stitches to the wound on his forehead. He was released from the hospital three days later.

Pelrine testified that he didn’t get a good look at the occupants of the SUV but said all three were Black males. He said he did not believe he had problems with anyone and had not done anything to provoke the shooting.

About 10 minutes after the shooting, an RCMP officer stopped a black Hyundai Kona in the Main Street area of east-end Dartmouth. Smith was driving the vehicle, and there were two passengers.

Believing these were the suspects in the shooting, the officer opened the driver’s door to remove Smith and pat him down. That’s when he saw the handle of a handgun sticking out from under the driver’s seat.

While the Mountie was handcuffing Smith, the two passengers ran from the vehicle.

The firearm recovered from underneath the driver’s seat was a semi-automatic Glock pistol that had one round chambered and nine nickel rounds in a 22-round overcapacity magazine.

The officer found a second semi-automatic Glock under the front passenger seat. That weapon also had one round chambered, with seven brass rounds in its 12-round overcapacity magazine.

Smith had gunshot residue on both hands and on the left side of his face. His DNA was contained in a mixed profile on the gun found under the driver’s seat.

A forensic firearms specialist said 11 of 23 expended bullet cartridge cases recovered from the scene appear to have come from the Glock found under the driver’s seat. Five came from the other handgun and seven were fired by a third gun.

A cultural assessment on Smith, who is African Nova Scotian, was prepared for the sentencing hearing. The assessment noted four of his friends have died in shootings since January 2021.

“In these particular circumstances, I do not find any features of Mr. Smith’s background that may have played a part in the offending such that his degree of responsibility for these offences is lessened,” Hartlen said.

“This court can envision a situation where a person who has had multiple friends murdered at social events might conclude it is necessary to carry a gun for protection. This hypothetical is irrelevant here for the attempted murder charge, which is essentially the charge that will be determinate of this sentence. Here, the handgun Mr. Smith possessed was very much used for an offensive purpose – he tried to kill someone with it. Mr. Pelrine was not posing any threat to Mr. Smith or his companions.

“I also note that it would be hard to accept that a person would possess a Glock handgun with an extended magazine capable of holding 22 bullets and a laser site for a defensive purpose.”

The judge rejected the Crown’s argument that the shooting was premeditated.

“There are possibly only three people on this Earth who know why this shooting occurred,” Hartlen said. “Obviously, the decision to drive around in a vehicle in the middle of the night with guns was premeditated. But on the evidence available to the court, a premeditated decision to shoot Kody Pelrine, or anyone else, cannot be established.”

She said the decision to come back and shoot at Pelrine again was aggravating “because it is a particularly cruel aspect of this shooting.”