Crystal meth addict gets bail for treatment

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This article was published 10/08/2016 (3680 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A crystal meth addict accused of taking part in a robbery at a convenience store has been released on bail to take treatment.

The Crown argued that the accused should be denied bail to protect the public and to maintain its confidence in the justice system.

However, the defence disagreed and said at least some members of the public would, too.

“They’re smart enough to know that people who have addictions need treatment and simply locking people up and throwing away the key isn’t the way to solve the social problem that is a drug addiction,” defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn said during a bail hearing on Monday.

Crown attorney Marnie Evans described the violent April 9 robbery at Hurl’s Food Mart at 1601 10th St.

Police arrived to find two men being detained by citizens.

One suspect was being held down by an off-duty police officer, while the other had been pursued by several people following the robbery and held against a building.

Evans said one witness told police that, just before the robbery, she saw two men approach the store, adjust clothing to cover their faces and then enter.

She said she watched through the glass door as the men attacked the store owner.

The store owner was “flipped” through the door and landed outside, where at least one of the robbers continued the assault before bystanders intervened, the witness told police.

Evans said that video footage from inside the store showed that the suspects had masked their faces with scarves.

The store owner told police that two men entered and one of them came to the counter and said something about cigarettes and cash while pointing a knife at him.

In response, the owner grabbed a baseball bat to scare the robber off, but the robber grabbed the bat and they started to fight.

Meanwhile, according to the video, the second man grabbed four packs of cigarettes from behind the counter and made a failed attempt to open the till.

The struggle left the store owner with a sore neck and wrist, two loose teeth and a headache. The robbery was witnessed by his wife, who was left in shock.

Police found a knife with a seven-inch blade inside the store.

The man accused of being the one who grabbed the cigarettes, Jamie Donald Charles Dalkeith-Mackie, applied for bail on Monday.

The allegations against him — robbery with violence and wearing a disguise to commit a crime — haven’t been proven and he’s presumed innocent.

Synyshyn said his client appeared under the influence of some substance during his arrest.

He said Dalkeith-Mackie, a longtime crystal meth addict, has been accepted into a residential treatment program that would require him to live at a facility in Winnipeg while on bail.

Provincial court Judge Donovan Dvorak agreed with the bail plan in light of the intensive residential drug treatment Dalkeith-Mackie will receive and released him with a next court date of Sept. 26.

Following the program, the 33-year-old accused will be banned from Brandon while on bail except for court purposes, and he’ll be on a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew.

Co-accused Raymond Blair Yaworski, 38, hasn’t applied for bail and remains in custody.

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