A young man arrested last year after a drug raid on his apartment was sentenced to a year of house arrest Monday.
Nicolas Degenhardt, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of possession for the purposes of trafficking and a single count of unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon. He was handed a two-year conditional sentence.
In the first year of the sentence he will be confined to his home 24 hours a day. He will be under a curfew during the second year.
Officers from the St. Albert RCMP drug squad raided Degenhardt’s apartment in Woodlands on June 16 last year and found 323 grams of marijuana and 37 grams of psilocybin, commonly referred to as magic mushrooms.
Officers also found some drug paraphernalia and a pair of brass knuckles, which led to the weapons charge.
The proposal for a conditional sentence came to Judge Norman Mackie from both the Crown and the defence.
Degenhardt had no prior criminal record and got into the drug trade to make a little bit of money while he was facing some financial hardships, according to his lawyer.
He had apparently just got into the business when his apartment was raided.
For the first 12 months of the sentence, he will have to stay inside his residence except for when he is working or for a handful of other small exceptions.
He won’t be allowed to have overnight visitors and will have to abstain completely from alcohol.
In the second 12 months, he will observe an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
He will also have to take any counselling his probation officer recommends.
Mackie chided Degenhardt and reminded him that should he breach any of the conditions, he could face a complete collapse of his house arrest in favour of jail.
“Hopefully we won’t see you here again,” said Mackie.
Degenhardt was also given a 10-year weapons ban.
