Man gets time served for carhopping, walking around with stolen shotgun

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This article was published 28/11/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man was sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to walking around Hamiota with a shotgun that he stole out of a vehicle three years ago, a judge decided in provincial court on Monday.

Kole Blackbird, 26, pleaded guilty to possessing an unauthorized firearm and stealing a shotgun. While Blackbird pleaded guilty to a total of seven offences, the Crown and defence agreed that the weapons offence was the most serious of his charges before the court that morning.

However, the lawyers did not agree on the recommended sentence for the gun charges, which the Crown argued should land Blackbird 12 to 14 months behind bars. The defence said Blackbird should receive a nine-month sentence for the offences, which he could serve in the community.

Crown attorney Reid Girard read the evidence for the charges in court.

On Oct. 10, 2020, Yellowhead RCMP were called to Hamiota — located 83 kilometres northwest of Brandon — after reports of numerous items being stolen from vehicles in the area. One item was a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, which had been stolen out of a vehicle.

Police later learned it was Blackbird, dressed in dark clothing, and another man who had been walking around Hamiota with the shotgun looking into windows of various homes.

“Essentially what we have here is two young men who were carhopping, stealing items from people’s vehicles and when they came across a shotgun, instead of leaving it there, they took it from the vehicle and began to possess it and carry it around the community,” the Crown attorney said.

Girard said the incident put the community at risk and Blackbird has a history of property offences. He also avoided dealing with his charges and spent a significant amount of time on warrant status, which reduces the meaningfulness of his guilty pleas, he argued.

“I would suggest that the community needs to be confident that those that carry stolen firearms in the middle of the night are going to face significant consequences,” Girard said.

Blackbird’s defence lawyer, Bob Harrison, said his client is in a very different place now than he was at the time of his offences. He now has a family and a full-time job and hasn’t had a drink since 2021. Harrison said his client has stayed out of trouble with the law for the past two years and any sentence should place an emphasis on rehabilitation.

Blackbird, who appeared in court by video from Brandon Correctional Centre, said he has a family to support now and wants to be out of jail to work and spend Christmas with his family.

Ultimately, Associate Chief Justice Donovan Dvorak decided that the time Blackbird had already spent in jail — just over nine months — was a sufficient sentence to deal with his charges and sentenced him to time served.

Blackbird was also sentenced to two years of probation and a $4,000 restitution order for stolen property.

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