Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
A man has been sentenced to jail for his role in terrorizing residents at a city apartment block.
Armed home invaders kicked in the doors of the wrong apartments twice before they found the suite of the woman they were after.
One of the victims in one of the wrong apartments had only just moved to the city.
“It was, of course … quite a welcome to Brandon,” Crown attorney Jim Ross said during sentencing.
Kevin Michael Easter, 26, pleaded guilty to three counts of break and enter.
He’s one of four men said to be involved and the first to deal with his charges.
The co-accused are related to each other and Easter is connected to them through his common-law girlfriend.
The incident goes back to a Jan. 5 party at Easter’s Westaway Bay home.
A woman at the party fought with the sister of Easter’s girlfriend.
Both women were treated at hospital after they “bottled” each other.
The raid at the apartment block on the 400-block of 12th Street happened three days later.
It was a result of the bad feelings left to fester between the two groups that supported each woman.
The apartment block was home to the woman who had fought the sister of Easter’s girlfriend.
The men kicked in the locked front door to the building.
At least some of the men were armed, but there are widely differing reports as to what the weapons were.
One of the men wore a balaclava.
Unaware of which suite their target lived in, they kicked open the doors to two wrong apartments.
In one suite lived a woman who had moved to Brandon the week before. Her door was kicked in by one of Easter’s companions who stood about 6-foot-2.
The intruder said, “Where is she?,” hit the woman in the chest and pushed her onto the couch before he exited.
A number of people were in the second apartment.
The door burst open and the woman who lived there said they were faced with four men — one reportedly had a knife, another a machete, another a piece of stair railing.
Ross said one of the men was said to have had a gun, but that can’t be proven.
The men then finally found the right apartment.
One of Easter’s companions hammered on the door with a piece of stair railing. The resident, at home with her three-year-old, opened the door and then slammed it shut when she realized who was there.
The unwanted guests kicked and banged on the door and screamed at the woman. They fled when a neighbour told them she was going to call police.
While his role wasn’t specified in court, Easter pleaded guilty to taking part in the break-ins.
Ross noted that Easter had co-operated with police by providing a statement and was probably the one with the most regrets about being involved.
Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta sentenced Easter to a total of 15 months in jail, minus 58 days presentence custody, followed by two years of probation.
“These are the kinds of incidents that serve to scar the victims and scare everyone else in the community,” Hewitt-Michta said.
» ihitchen@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition March 9, 2013
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A man has been sentenced to jail for his role in terrorizing residents at a city apartment block.
Armed home invaders kicked in the doors of the wrong apartments twice before they found the suite of the woman they were after.
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A man has been sentenced to jail for his role in terrorizing residents at a city apartment block.
Armed home invaders kicked in the doors of the wrong apartments twice before they found the suite of the woman they were after.
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