Statutory release revoked for man guilty in Thorsby gas owner's death

Mitchell Sydlowski appears in an undated photo. Supplied.

Mitchell Sydlowski is back in prison after being accused of assaulting his girlfriend while intoxicated while on parole.

Sydlowski, now 33, was sentenced in 2020 after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the 2017 death of a Thormsby, Alta., gas station owner.

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He was let out on parole for the second time in November 2023.

He had been living in an unidentified community and being driven to work as a general labourer in "the city" for just over two months when his parole was suspended.

One day in January, he was arrested by police in a different city.

Later, Sydlowski would tell the parole board that he took an Uber there because he believed his girlfriend of a month and a half was cheating and she wouldn't answer his calls. He admitted to consuming alcohol, contrary to his conditions of release.

He is accused of threatening to kill her, a male friend, and himself, as well as attempting to strangle her. She was not seriously hurt.

Next release

Sydlowski will be granted statutory release again within weeks.

By law, new statutory release dates are calculated using the time remaining on a person's sentence and set at two-thirds of the remaining time.

Sydlowski was sentenced in September 2020 to three years and 10 months in prison, after credit for time he served in pre-trial custody.

His first release on day parole in May 2022 to a treatment centre lasted until July, when the facility withdrew its support. Sydlowski was accused of acting aggressively, possessing unauthorized prescription pills, and focusing more on dating than his programming.

The member of the Parole Board of Canada who reviewed Sydlowski's parole suspension in early May concluded his "offending behaviour is related to substance abuse, negative associates, impulsivity, and lack of consequential thinking.

"File information reports that you associate with peers who value a substance-abusing lifestyle, and when under the influence, you make impulsive, dangerous, and self-serving decisions."

Upon his next release, Sydlowski will again be supervised and ordered to follow a list of conditions, including abstaining from drugs and alcohol, following a treatment plan, remaining employed, and not contacting anyone involved in criminal activity or his victims' families.