Travis Zackery Taylor avoided a jail sentence for lying to police following a high-profile fatal hit & run in Parksville. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

misleading police

Man sentenced for lying to police following fatal hit & run in Parksville

Mar 4, 2022 | 5:29 AM

NANAIMO — A man’s unsophisticated bid to mislead police investigating an impaired driving case deepened the pain for the victim’s family.

Travis Zackery Taylor, 32, was sentenced to a 12 month conditional sentence order after he entered a late guilty plea to an obstruction charge for a hit and run in downtown Parksville in 2019.

Taylor was the lone passenger of a truck driven by a highly intoxicated Ryan John Grob, who hit and killed Spencer Alexander Moore, 32, on Hirst Ave. in the early morning hours of Aug. 24, 2019.

Moore was killed instantly from blunt force trauma just after he partying with large group of mutual friends at Rod & Gun Bar & Grill, including Grob and Taylor.

Grob was sentenced to six years in jail last September after he pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death.

changing rooms

New dressing room under construction at Oceanside Place

9h ago

Parksville trail

Parksville trail project linking Community Park and Englishman River Estuary to get underway

12h ago

Best in Sport

Nanaimo celebrates Sport Achievement Awards and Hall of Fame inductions

Feb 21, 2026

On Thursday, March 3 in provincial court in Nanaimo Taylor appeared in the same courtroom with members of Moore’s family.

An agreed statement of facts outlined by the Crown’s Nick Barber described how Taylor attended the Oceanside RCMP detachment the afternoon following Moore’s death.

Taylor claimed he walked home from the bar and didn’t leave in Grob’s truck, contrary to multiple eyewitness accounts.

Barber said Taylor’s hindrance of the police investigation had a domino type effect.

“Because it is directly contrary to what other witnesses are saying. The police then have a much more difficult time, they have to seek out further evidence, whereas if Mr. Taylor had simply come forward it may not have been necessary in some of the delays.”

Barber lobbied for a one year jail sentence against the construction worker, calling Taylor’s actions a serious criminal offence with high moral culpability, requiring real jail time.

“Mr. Taylor is not just somebody who knew what happened, or was told what happened and withheld that from police, he was present when this occurred.”

Taylor didn’t come clean to police until more than a year later in October 2020. He pleaded guilty last fall after Grob was jailed.

Several impact statements were presented to the court, including the victim’s sister-in-law Jess Moore.

She was highly critical of Taylor, saying he wasn’t merely an innocent bystander.

“His efforts to evade the law serve as a powerful statement demonstrating no respect for the law, no respect for Spencer’s family, no respect for other people. He was completely reckless,” Moore said.

She amplified how Taylor’s deception added further pain to their family who were having difficulty healing in part due to the prolonged inaction by both of the accused

The victim’s brother and uncle also attended the hearing, sitting across the gallery from Taylor and his mother.

During lengthy defence submissions, Taylor’s attorney Chris Churchill emphasized his client was not before the courts for causing Moore’s death.

Churchill said it’s important to separate Grob and Taylor’s actions.

“Until he (Taylor) gave that false statement he had committed no offence Your Honour and had absolutely no criminal liability in the death of Mr. Moore,” Churchill said.

Churchill pointed out Oceanside RCMP knew Taylor wasn’t being truthful during the initial statement.

A portion of Taylor’s admission to police more than a year after the initial false statement was read out in court.

The account recorded by police reinforced multiple witness accounts that Taylor was fully aware of what happened prior to first approaching police.

“I passed out on the couch, woke up and all of this stuff was all over the [expletive] internet, then I came up with the [expletive] lie because I was scared and I came in here and I told it….I didn’t know what the [expletive] to do.”

Churchill noted Taylor felt like a huge weight had been lifted after telling the truth.

During a brief address to the court, Taylor apologized to the Moore family and the community for not taking immediate responsibility.

“Over the past two years that this has gone on I’ve learned that making proper choices outweighs the grief caused by lying,” Taylor said.

While concealing the truth for his friend was an aggravating factor, Judge Harvey cited Taylor not being a danger to society as a key reason for a non custodial sentence.

“He has no prior related criminal record and came clean during his arrest on Oct. 16, 2020, something the officer was expecting,” Judge Harvey said.

Taylor’s sentence includes curfew for the first six months between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

He was also ordered to serve 50 hours of community work service and can’t leave the province for the next year unless given special permission

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes