Time served for theft, possessing bear spray

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This article was published 08/10/2022 (1230 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 22-year-old man was granted release Thursday after he pleaded guilty to stealing from a taxi, possessing bear spray and failing to comply with a curfew order in court.

While all three of these charges evened out to four months in jail, Carlos Bear had already spent an equivalent amount of time behind bars, which means he will no longer be spending time in custody.

Despite being known to Brandon police, Bear popped back on their radar April 13, when he was caught stealing from a 4-Way Taxi cab that dropped him off on 10th Street.

Bear had told the taxi driver he didn’t have any money to pay his fare and went inside an apartment building to supposedly retrieve some funds, leaving his phone as collateral.

A female subject then emerged from the apartment and engaged the taxi driver in conversation, asking if he would accept an e-transfer.

Using this conversation as a distraction, Bear snuck around the other side of the cab and grabbed several items from inside, including some cash, a debit machine and the driver’s taxi permit.

However, police located and arrested Bear a short time later.

“It’s the sort of thing that has the air of a robbery, your honour, in terms of there being an allegation of some violence by the woman,” Crown attorney Melania Cannon told Judge John Combs on Thursday. “In fact, it was initially investigated as a robbery. But ultimately, it was laid as a theft.”

After being released from custody, Bear was arrested once again on the night of April 30, when police went to the City Centre Hotel after receiving a report that several people had been sprayed with bear mace.

While the Crown never proved that Bear had actually used the mace, he was still in possession of the weapon at the scene and was charged accordingly.

Bear was released once again May 1 under a variety of conditions, including the stipulation that he had to reside at his home in a Westman First Nation and remain there between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

However, he violated the conditions of his curfew on July 16 when he was spotted walking along Highway 16 in Neepawa at 11:28 p.m.

Defence attorney Bob Harrison told the court that some of his client’s anti-social behaviour can be attributed to a variety of factors, including drug use and a lack of parental guidance, since he has been a ward of Child and Family Services since he was 17.

However, Harrison insists that Bear is serious about turning his life around, and plans on finding employment and returning to school once he is released.

“At 22, he’s headed in the wrong direction and he knows that,” the defence lawyer said. “He also knows that he’s the only one who can change that … and that’s a good thing.”

Combs endorsed the time-served sentence brought forward by the defence and the Crown, allowing Bear to be released from custody later that same day.

However, Combs warned the young man to stay on the straight and narrow, since his criminal record reaches further back than these three recent charges and is not a pattern that should be replicated moving forward.

“It’s always sad to see someone who is only 22 years old accumulate the type of record you have already,” the judge said.

“Let’s hope, Mr. Bear, that as you are maturing, that you are making better decisions and that once you get out of custody you decide that you don’t want to be where you are and you’ll change your lifestyle.”

Bear appeared in court via video conference Thursday and did not provide any comments besides affirming his guilty pleas.

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