A man who used a payphone like an ATM, among other crimes, was handed an eight-month jail term last week.
Kory Alcide Robillard, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of stolen property over $5,000, one count of possession of stolen property under $5,000, obstruction of a police officer and several breaches of his bail conditions and was handed the term.
Robillard was given two-for-one credit for the four months he had already served, effectively making his sentence one of time served.
Police spotted Robillard while out on patrol on July 26 and thought he was behaving suspiciously.
When officers asked him for his name he provided a false one. Unfortunately for Robillard, the person whose name he used had a warrant out for his arrest and he was taken into custody.
When officers were arresting him they found he was carrying a large volume of change and just a few feet away there was a payphone that had been tampered with and had the faceplate removed.
The Ford F-150 he and a passenger had driven to the area was also stolen.
When Robillard finally confessed his true identity it was revealed he was out on bail with conditions not to possess any drugs, which he violated with a crack pipe he was carrying. He was also required to carry a copy of his release conditions with him at all times, which he did not have.
The beat did not go on for a man with a lengthy criminal record caught stealing an MP3 player from a local store.
Jeffery Kurt Siereau pleaded guilty to one count of theft and was handed a 120-day jail sentence.
Siereau has been in jail since Oct. 12, giving him 84 days of pre-trial custody when credited on a two-for-one basis. He had hoped to serve his remaining 36 days intermittently on weekends, but intermittent time is only available for sentences of less than 90 days.
A loss prevention officer spotted Siereau entering the London Drugs store and recognized him from previous incidents. The officer kept a close eye on the man who wandered into the electronic department and hid two MP3 players in his waistband.
Before leaving the store he handed one of the devices back to an employee, but exited with the other one firmly concealed.
Siereau told the court he hoped to enter a rehab program during the week and serve his sentence on weekends.
Judge Jeanne Burch said even if he couldn’t start the program right away she hoped he would embrace it when he did get out and turn his life around.
“Hopefully they will help keep you out of that box.”
A 37-year-old man with an apparent penchant for stolen DVDs was sentenced to six months in jail last week, but was left with just 12 days to serve.
Darrel Lavallee pleaded guilty to a host of criminal charges from both St. Albert and Leduc and was handed the jail sentence, but when two-for-one credit was granted for the 84 days he had already spent in jail it covered most of his sentence.
Lavallee was arrested twice this year, once in St. Albert on Jan. 9 where he was spotted at the newly opened Future Shop location.
Store security spotted him hiding DVDs on his person and he walked out the door with $574 worth of movies.
He was also spotted on Sept. 1 at the Leduc Wal-Mart, again walking out with stolen DVDs. This time he had 77 DVDs worth more than $2,000. When store security officers reviewed their footage they realized Lavallee had also stolen DVDs from the store a week earlier, but had not been caught.
Lavallee also missed one of his St. Albert court dates and during the second theft in Leduc he was in breach of both his bail conditions and his probation.
A man pleading guilty for the second assault on his wife in three years was handed a 30-day jail term, but he will be permitted to spend it on weekends.
The 43-year-old man pleaded guilty to the assault last week.
Police were called out to the couples’ home on Sept 18. The pair had been out at the Gold Dust Casino and both returned home heavily intoxicated.
The pair started arguing and the man punched his wife across the face and said, “How do you like that?”
When they initially arrived home the man had been trying to leave the situation and spend the evening in a hotel, but the woman refused to get out of the truck.
Judge Jeanne Burch said regardless of what provocation he might have felt, the man had to understand physical violence was not the answer.
“I think using physical force — whether in a drunken state or otherwise — is inappropriate.”
In order to facilitate the intermittent jail sentence, Burch placed the man on nine months probation and ordered him to report on weekends to the Edmonton Remand Centre.
The man’s employment occasionally requires him to work Saturday and Burch allowed him to work with his probation officer to determine when he would report.
She also ordered him to take any counselling his probation officer recommends.
