A woman caught breaking into a condo complex and vandalizing cars was handed a 10-month jail sentence.
Mercy Faith Rinder, 31, pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawfully being in a dwelling house and three counts of mischief.
Police were called to a condo complex on March 8 after someone reported seeing three people force their way into the building.
When police arrived, they discovered the front door had been damaged. They went into the parking garage and found three people. Several vehicles had smashed windows.
Rinder was one of those three people. Police found a pick-up truck outside the complex that had been reported stolen in Edmonton.
The Crown sought a sentence of between nine and 12 months in jail, with credit for the time she had already spent in custody.
The defence agreed the proposal was reasonable, but encouraged Judge Charles Gardner to focus on the lower end.
Gardner settled on 10 months but gave Rinder credit for the three-and-a-half months she had already spent in jail.
A man who simply stopped attending appointments with his probation officer will spend his weekends in jail for the next few months.
Craig Beech, 37, was serving one year’s probation for refusing to provide a breath sample last June and initially did well, but stopped reporting in December until February.
Crown prosecutor Jeff Morrison argued a jail sentence was the only logical sentence for someone who had breached probation.
Beech asked the court for another option, any other option to allow him to continue working and spending time on the weekends with his daughter.
Beech said he visited her once a week on Sundays and wanted to continue to do so.
Judge Charles Gardner said he wasn’t pleased to be doing it, but agreed with Morrison that jail time was necessary.
“I regret that this is coming the day after Father’s Day.”
Becch will have to report to jail every Friday night and stay until Sunday afternoon until he has served 30 days.
He will be on probation during the week with the added condition to take any counselling directed.
A woman was narrowly spared a jail sentence on a shoplifting charge.
Doris Theresa Hickey, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft and was handed a year of probation.
Local RCMP were called on June 15 to the Zellers store after store security caught Hickey trying to leave with $257 in groceries.
Hickey had a criminal record that included previous convictions for theft. As a result, Crown prosecutor Jeff Morrison suggested she should serve 45 to 60 days behind bars.
Hickey said she was starting to turn her life around and was in her own apartment.
Judge Charles Gardner looked through the criminal record and noticed she had only ever paid fines or done short jail stays.
“From what I can tell this women has never been on probation.”
Gardner said the probation term might give her a chance to address her larger issues.
While on probation she will have to perform 75 hours of community service and take any counselling her probation officers recommends.
