An Osoyoos man who brought a pistol to Canada Day celebrations in 2022 and shot a man through the thigh will have to wait to hear how much longer he will spend in jail.

Steven Marlo Gallagher, 32, appeared in Penticton Supreme Court on Feb. 13 for his sentencing, after being found guilty at trial in December of 2024 of one count of aggravated assault, one count of pointing a firearm and one count of firing a firearm.

The sentence will extend his stay in jail, as Gallagher is currently in prison for arson and other unrelated firearms crimes from 2021. Those sentences were scheduled to finish in 2028.

After hearing submissions from Crown and Gallagher's defence, Madam Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick stated that she would need time to review all of the case law before making a decision as to how many further years in jail Gallagher will spend. 

Crown was seeking between nine and 10 years in jail, with a slight reduction down to eight to nine years for totality given the other sentences he is currently serving.

Defence was seeking a further reduced sentence of around 3.5 to six years, after taking into account the totality of the other sentences Gallagher is currently serving. 

At the beginning of the trial, the Crown prosecution laid out how the victim had gone to White Sands beach with a group of friends, while at the same time, Gallagher and his own group had set up on the hill above the beach. 

After Gallagher began to kick sand down the beach towards the other group, he got into an argument with some of them, expressing his interest in fighting before pulling out a gun and shooting wildly. 

Several of the shots went into the air, but at least two found the victim's body, with a cut above his eye and a shot that went clean through his hip. 

A date was set for March 7 for when Fitzpatrick will deliver her judgement.