Drug trafficker behind bars again for breaching court order

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/01/2025 (422 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man convicted of working for a cocaine trafficking operation in July of 2023 was back before a Brandon court on Monday afternoon after breaching his Conditional Sentence Order (CSO) for the second time since Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta sentenced him to two years under house arrest.

While Brandon Police Service’s (BPS’s) organized crime section was investigating drug trafficking back in May of 2022, officers witnessed the accused Austin McDonald being involved in three separate drug deals. This allowed law enforcement officers to obtain a search warrant for McDonald’s residence.

During their search of McDonald’s home, offices arrived on-scene to find McDonald sitting at a table with a three-and-a-half-gram bag of cocaine that had been ripped open for him to weigh. Police also found cellphones, spoons, dime bags, and scales used for dividing and packaging the contraband.

Altogether, eight grams of cocaine were found on the table, which was the amount that McDonald pleaded guilty to possessing before Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench. Officers also recovered $8,000 in cash, and weapons during their search.

When Judge Hewitt-Michta sentenced McDonald, she highlighted the threat that distributing cocaine poses to the community and public safety.

“By participating in this sub-culture and this activity, albeit at the behest or direction of others, that Mr. McDonald is contributing to that presence in the community and to that downward spiral of other people’s lives,” Judge Hewitt-Michta said back in July of 2023.

Meanwhile, McDonald breached the terms of his CSO in September last year, when he failed to answer calls from his probation officer and was spotted by BPS in a vehicle away from his residence. In response to this violation, Judge Hewitt-Michta suspended McDonald’s CSO for 30 days, and he was ordered to spend that time in custody at the Brandon Correctional Centre (BCC).

More recently, McDonald was found to be in breach of his CSO once again when he failed to answer calls from the assigned probation officer on Jan. 4. However, McDonald appeared in court on Monday to give an explanation for why that had happened.

In his testimony, McDonald told the court that the window and door of his residence at 702 15th St. were smashed in during the early morning hours on Jan. 4. McDonald and his defence lawyer, Myles Davis, explained that phone calls from the probation officer could not be heard later in the day because it was accidentally left upstairs.

Davis and McDonald’s landlord both testified that the phone was left upstairs while they were repairing damages to the broken window and door.

“He has been complying with numerous other curfew checks conducted by a telephone … And so Mr. McDonald, since July of 2023, with the exception to these two incidents, has been compliant with the curfew and he’s been compliant with the curfew checks. And I would suggest the court that he has a reasonable excuse to have missed these curfew checks,” Davis argued in defence of his client on Monday.

However, Crown attorney Dan Manning argued that there was no good reason for McDonald to miss the calls to check-in with his probation officer. He pointed out that CSO conditions are serious, and must be followed in order for the community to have continued confidence in the justice system.

“So all of this stuff, all this while the door was kicked in, it’s all smoke and mirrors. The fact is, he didn’t answer his phone. There’s no reasonable excuse here at all,” Manning said before the judge, who ultimately decided to terminate McDonald’s CSO, resulting in him serving the remainder of his two-year sentence in custody.

“I agree with a lot of what the Crown had to say today, the integrity of this controversial sentencing option, this very valuable alternative that we have to custody, is at stake every time. If the court doesn’t take these orders seriously, they lose their integrity,” Judge Hewitt-Michta said following her decision.

McDonald’s sentence will be completed in July, but he will serve the remaining portion behind bars at BCC.

» dstein@brandonsun.com

» X: @DavidPStein_