A Vancouver man who tried to hire someone to attack two Westfield Vancouver mall employees will serve more than 6 months in jail.
Judge Scott Collier verbally sentenced Alan D. Dietchweiler, 59, to 202 days in jail, though delayed filing the sentencing paperwork to review whether he qualifies for community custody following his jail time. The case was set to be continued at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Following a bench trial that concluded on Aug. 6, Dietchweiler was found guilty of solicitation to commit second-degree assault. Between Oct. 18, 2010, and Jan. 1, 2011, he plotted to have the mall employees seriously injured.
Dietchweiler walked in the mall for exercise and reportedly began stalking and harassing the employees in early 2010 after he was banned from a store inside the mall. The incident resulted in Dietchweiler facing misdemeanor stalking and harassment charges.
As a result of the mall employees’ involvement in that case, Dietchweiler attempted to enlist the maintenance manager at his east Vancouver apartment complex to perform the assaults, requesting that he “needed someone to break every bone in these people’s bodies and make their faces unrecognizable,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
The maintenance manager alerted the Vancouver Police Department, and Dietchweiler was arrested Jan. 1, 2011, after he gave the man $7,500 for the assault, Collier said.
Dietchweiler told the maintenance manager he wanted the assaults to happen the week of Jan. 3 because he was scheduled to plead guilty to the stalking charge that week and be placed on house arrest, which would make for a good alibi, according to the affidavit. Collier said the misdemeanor case in District Court has since been resolved.
At Monday’s sentencing hearing, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu argued that the crime was a violent offence and that Dietchweiler’s actions led to years of constant worry by the victims. He asked Collier to impose the six-plus month sentence, which was the high end of the sentencing range.
Lea Vucak, one of the mall employees who was targeted, spoke at the hearing.
“I never did anything to this man to deserve the prolonged pain and suffering,” she said. “I stopped living the life I deserved to be living.”
She spoke directly to Dietchweiler, saying “you’ve stolen a precious part of our young lives. Let it go, let us all move on. I beg you to leave us alone.”
Tom Phelan, Dietchweiler’s attorney, asked Collier to consider electronic home confinement so that he can undergo cancer screening and treatment. He also said that Dietchweiler needs to care for his 89-year-old mother, who has dementia.
Phelan also argued that the crime of soliciting does not have a victim and is not a violent crime and so does not qualify Dietchweiler to serve community custody.
Collier said that he was not swayed by the argument for a shorter sentence and so imposed the harshest punishment of more than 6 months.
Collier said that the law on community custody was unclear. He said he’d review the statute, as well as case law before Tuesday’s hearing on the matter.
