Ex-Goldeyes prospect spared from jail for assault

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This article was published 16/06/2023 (855 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former major league draft pick and Winnipeg Goldeyes prospect, who was arrested after a traffic stop ended with police chasing him onto a frozen lake and seizing a sawed-off shotgun, will not have to serve his sentence in jail, the Manitoba Court of Appeal has ruled.

David Allan Parker, 40, pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm, breaching a weapons prohibition order and assault, and was sentenced last June to two years of house arrest.

Court was told that at the time of his Jan.1, 2020 arrest in Gimli, Parker was struggling with a drug addiction that started after his baseball career ended.

Prosecutors appealed the sentence, calling it “demonstrably unfit,” and urged the appeal court to replace it with a sentence of 42 months in prison.

While Parker’s sentence is clearly low, he has shown commitment to rehabilitating himself, and sending him to jail could adversely impact the positive steps he has made, the appeal court ruled in its written decision released last week.

“Without a doubt, these were serious firearms offences committed by a mature individual with a criminal record,” Justice Freda Steel wrote on behalf of the court.

“Yet this is not a case of an individual simply promising to do better. He appears in front of this court having demonstrated a period of three years of sobriety with every indication of continuing along that path and has been compliant while serving his conditional sentence order.”

RCMP in Gimli had received a tip Parker might be driving while high on drugs and in possession of a gun when they tried to pull his car over and he ran into a local bar.

Parker stashed a satchel, which contained a sawed-off shotgun, under a pool table before running out the back door and onto Lake Winnipeg, where a number of people were ice fishing.

He assaulted an ice fisher while trying to steal his pickup truck and then attempted to steal a second vehicle, but police arrested him.

Parker told court at his sentencing hearing he had been on a six-day drug binge and was sleeping in his car. He lived in fear of drug dealers to whom he owed money. He said a friend offered him the gun for protection and he took it, not intending to use it.

Parker was born in Winnipeg and drafted as a pitcher in the 31st round by the Los Angeles Dodgers just after he left Sisler High School in 2001. He decided to go to Eastern Oklahoma Community College instead. He re-entered the draft the following year and was selected again by Los Angeles, this time in the 43rd round.

Parker spent several successful years in minor league baseball but was cut in 2005 while trying out for the Goldeyes after falling victim to a numbers game in terms of their required rookie quota.

His baseball career ended when he was convicted of assault after a bar fight. In the following years, he accumulated convictions for motor vehicle theft, drug possession and multiple breaches of court orders. In 2011, Parker pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking and was sentenced to two years in custody.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca