Hearing for teen who killed Depatie postponed
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Updated: November 06, 2009 12:54 PM
A parole hearing has been postponed for the teenager who dragged a Maple Ridge gas station attendant to his death four years ago.
Darnell Darcy Pratt has applied for an early release from prison.
Pratt was 16 in March 2005 when, while driving a stolen car, he struck Grant De Patie when the gas station attendant tried to stop him fleeing an Esso station in Maple Ridge without paying for gas.
He fled in the car, dragging 24-year-old De Patie under it for 7.5 kilometres.
Now, 19, Pratt is eligible for full parole.
A hearing to determine if he is suitable for release was scheduled for next week at a federal prison in Mission.
Grant De Patie's father Doug, a Surrey resident, had already prepared a statement to read at the hearing and has asked the board to keep Pratt in prison.
Originally charged with second degree murder, Pratt pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced in May 2006 as an adult to nine years minus time served, for a total of seven years and three months in prison.
In April 2007, the B.C. Court of Appeal reduced the nine-year sentence to seven years, making the sentence, after credit for time served, five years and 10 months.
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